Oxford's Broad Street turned into a film set today as shooting for The Oxford Murders began.

Camera crews set up near the Bodleian Library early in the morning and spent most of the day filming Lord of the Rings actor Elijah Wood in some of the final scenes of the film, based on Guillermo Martinez's award-winning novel.

His co-star, British actor John Hurt, was also in the city for the shoot.

Blackwells bookshop had a starring role, with Wood filmed entering the store to buy the fictional Logic Series of Modern Mathematics, copies of which were displayed in the front window.

Manager Tony Cooper said: "They were here at 7am filming in Blackwells and Elijah Wood was here too.

"The shop does feature in the novel and yesterday's scenes will see him buying a very large stack of books here.

"He was a very amicable guy."

The nearby White Horse pub, set to feature in a scene to be shot on Thursday, provided a warm haven for extras and crew. Licensee Jacqueline Paphitis said: "Elijah Wood was in this morning and had a cup of tea. He was laid-back and a really nice guy.

"Everyone's really excited about the filming on Thursday.

"The last time we had filming in the pub was when John Thaw was doing Morse here in 1987, but there's always something going on in Oxford."

The crew is due to spend the next few days in the city, before filming is complete. Catte Street, New College Lane and Exeter College are also to be used as locations.

Wood, who played Frodo in the film version of JRR Tolkien's Lord of the Rings trilogy, plays a young Argentinian student who comes to Oxford to study.

He becomes intrigued when he discovers that his landlady - an elderly woman who helped crack the Enigma code during the Second World War - has been murdered.

Hurt - who voiced Aragorn in the 1978 animated version of Lord of the Rings - plays an Oxford University professor who takes Wood under his wing as they work together to decipher a series of murders seemingly linked by mathematical symbols.

The filming is another part in the city's film and television history.

Oxford is most famously the backdrop to the Inspector Morse television series, and its follow-up Lewis, and has also been used in a range of movies, including the Harry Potter series and, most recently, Bollywood film I Can't Think Straight.

It will also feature in a new film adaptation of Brideshead Revisited.