Street signs change city for Philadelphia story

GEORGE Square was gripped by a gridlock of American cars last night - and rows of portoloos, as even the undead have to spend a penny.

The final transformation of Glasgow into Philadelphia was completed with the addition of more cars, American flags and even vending machines selling US newspapers.

Portoloos were lowered into place for the hundreds of extras who will be forming the backdrop of a scene from World War Z, the 120 million film in which zombies take over the city, which begins shooting this morning.

The production, which will be filming around the city square for the next two weeks, is expected to involve almost 1,200 people and bring at least 2m into the local economy. Among the scenes being shot will be a number of car crashes, with rumours of an exploding petrol tanker being filmed on Saturday.

Many of the American signs, painted walkways and even a city bus were brought in by Andrew Boath, who owns the family-run prop business Men at Work with his son, Gerard.

Yesterday he said: "The people of Glasgow have been amazing. The council has taken down the traffic lights and replaced them with American ones, if you asked council bosses in London to do that they wouldn't even answer the phone. It is very exciting to be working on such a big production in such a great city."

Mr Boath has come to work on World War Z straight from helping with props on the up-coming Sherlock Holmes 2, starring Jude Law and Robert Downey Jnr, which was partly shot on the Waverley in Greenock.

He set up the London-based firm 20 years ago with his wife Nora, 62. Before that he had run his own plant hire firm but changed career when he was asked to provide industrial tarmac for a BBC programme. They shipped the bus over from America and it has featured in films such as Kick-Ass, and a host of BBC productions.