CROWDS of people gathered in St Albans city centre on Tuesday to try and catch a glimpse of the shooting of Hollywood star Ewan McGregor's new film.

St Peter's Street, Market Place and St Albans Abbey will all be used this week as backgrounds to Incendiary, a romantic drama due out in 2008.

The film tells the story of an adulterous woman whose life is torn apart when her husband and infant son are killed in a suicide bombing at a football match.

It is based on the bestselling novel by British author Chris Cleave.

Extras, who auditioned in St Albans last weekend, were on stand-by while leading lady Michelle Williams, best known for her Dawsons Creek role, was filmed in a scene getting off a bus outside Monsoon on Tuesday.

On Wednesday Robert Dyas, in St Peter's Street, became a discount sports store for the day, Specsavers in Market Place was turned into a florist and on Thursday a funeral scene is due to be shot at the abbey.