He’s the sort of visitor even the Tourist Board might think twice about. But Hellboy is coming to Northern Ireland in one of the blockbuster super-hero movies of the summer.

The entire climax of Hellboy 2: The Golden Army is set along the stunning North Coast, with the Giant’s Causeway area in particular getting a special mention.

Hellboy — a demon brought to Earth by the Nazis and rescued by the Allies — is seen striding out across a headland not far from Whitepark Bay.

And he is accompanied by his trusted sidekick Liz, a lady with a tendency to burst into flames.

They are the main characters in a cult series published by Dark Horse Comics, which is likely eventually to become a movie trilogy.

The long action sequence featuring a creature crossed between a leprechaun and a handcart, will delight Ulster audiences.

But it is only the latest major movie project with a distinct ‘Norn Iron’ connection, including Closing the Ring, Kings, City of Embers and Cinderella starring Rupert Grint from the Harry Potter films. But Hellboy, with a strong fan base and a massive publicity drive behind it, is likely to reach a world wide audience. The film is due to open here next month.

At one stage the jutting rocks embedded in the foreland form themselves into a Finn McCool-style giant to allow our hero, who has one hand made out of stone, to uncover a secret, ancient, buried army. But no one need fear the worst. For it turns out neither Hellboy, also known as World Destroyer and The Right Hand of Doom, and his team who investigate the occult never set foot in NI.

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Instead the production team spent two days filming ground and aerial shots onto which Mr H and his colleagues from the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense have been superimposed.

So when HB et al go inside the ‘giant’ they are closer to Hollywood than Holywood.

A spokeswoman for Northern Ireland Screen, formerly known as the Northern Ireland Film and Television Commission, said: “We did not invest in it and we did not support it financially but we helped out in that we did facilitate the filming and some of our crew joined them.”

In the movie an ectoplasmic professor with a special machine says the “co-ordinates” are directing the team towards somewhere called County Antrim in Northern Ireland.

“We will go to Antrim,” says Liz and suddenly there they are, not a stone’s throw from Ballintoy.

Just unfortunate his travels don’t take him across the Carrick-a-rede rope bridge.

But that just might be Hellboy’s idea of hell.