Cue the cloud factory. And if a little money rains down in the process, all the better.

If all goes as planned, "The Mysteries of Pittsburgh," Michael Chabon's 1988 novel that put him on the literary map, will be made into an $8 million to $9 million movie starring a yet-to-be-cast actor in the lead, plus Peter Sarsgaard and Sienna Miller.

Still to be decided, however, is whether the movie in which Pittsburgh is a virtual character will be made in Pittsburgh.

"We've always, always, always wanted to shoot in Pittsburgh," Michael London, CEO of Groundswell Productions, said yesterday by phone. "It's hard to imagine this story not being shot in Pittsburgh. But film production is really costly, and it varies a great deal from state to state, based upon the crew rates and the incentives individual locations can offer a film production company.

"We're looking for some compromises in Pittsburgh to allow us to shoot there and not have to leave and shoot somewhere less expensive," said Mr. London, whose producing credits include "The Family Stone," "Sideways," "House of Sand and Fog" and "Thirteen."

"The Pittsburgh film commission has been enormously helpful but they can't change things like basic crew rates, so we're in conversations now with the commission about everything from breaks on hotel rates to breaks on locations."

Mr. London called the Pennsylvania tax rebate program "very strong, very enticing" and said he wouldn't even be talking about Pittsburgh were it not for the state and city. Still, he said if he has to import and house most of the crew for months, that expense would eat into his budget.

Although the crew strength isn't what it was in the early 1990s, the business agent for the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees Local 489 says membership hasn't shrunk since "The Mothman Prophecies" (released in 2002) or "Wonder Boys" (2000) were filmed here.

"The difference is a lot of our people obviously do a lot more commercial work than they used to," Jean-Pierre Nutini said yesterday. While there wouldn't be enough crew to staff three movies, "I think we're as deep as we have been for the last 10 years."

The balance between locals and out-of-towners (even if Pittsburgh has able workers, some key staffers prefer to bring their own crew) will factor into expenses. With three months of pre-production and two months of shooting, likely to start in August or early September, housing costs are key.

"I think everyone is motivated to get us to Pittsburgh. We're motivated to shoot in Pittsburgh, but we have to get our budget down ... or we have to look at other locations," Mr. London said.

He said he wasn't being wooed by other cities but "there are places like Louisiana and Canada, where either the crew rates are a lot cheaper or the incentives are even more significant." Money, of course, drove George Romero and his zombies to Canada for "Land of the Dead."

Dawn Keezer, director of the Pittsburgh Film Office, said she has been working with the filmmakers for months. "We hope to have good news soon. We would love to have them here."

As for the man who wrote "The Mysteries of Pittsburgh," he says good-naturedly, "Look, it's in the title, right? I really hope and pray and wish that it can be worked out."

Talking from his home in California yesterday, Mr. Chabon added, "Of course, I don't know anything about how these things are done and it's not my job to make those kinds of decisions, but I think it would be great for the movie and it would be great for the city, too," just as the film of "Wonder Boys" was. Mr. Chabon is a University of Pittsburgh graduate.

"Mysteries," to be written and directed by Rawson Thurber ("Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story"), would be the first movie under Mr. London's new Groundswell banner. Although "Dodgeball" might seem an unusual warm-up, Mr. London said Mr. Thurber grew up on "Mysteries" and it's the reason he wanted to make movies, so he could turn the book into a film.

"Mysteries," a coming-of-age story set almost entirely in the East End, is about a character named Art Bechstein, a Pitt economics graduate spending the summer working in a bookstore. He becomes involved with two students, Phlox Lombardi and then Arthur Lecomte, who work at Hillman Library.

Actors, known and unknown, are reading for the lead of Art.

The screenplay calls for the characters of Arthur (not to be confused with Art) and Cleveland Arning to be consolidated into one, played by Mr. Sarsgaard. An actor who effortlessly moves between indie and mainstream movies, Mr. Sarsgaard last year was seen in "Jarhead," "Flightplan," "The Skeleton Key" and "The Dying Gaul."

Ms. Miller toured The Andy Warhol Museum in November, in preparation for her role as Edie Sedgwick in "Factory Girl." She would play Jane, who in the book is Cleveland's girlfriend and a blond Southerner.

Mr. London said financing is virtually complete. "No movie is completely a go, no matter what anyone ever told you," but he feels confident the movie will be shot this fall.

"The only thing that's holding us back now is figuring out whether we're shooting in Pittsburgh. We're in daily conversations with Dawn Keezer. ... She's been really helpful."

Mr. Chabon, meanwhile, is working on a screenplay of his Pulitzer Prize-winning novel "The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay." It's the story of two fictional comic-book creators set primarily in the 1930s and '40s.

He interrupted his writing to recall stopping in the Curtain Call shop Downtown a few years ago and finding "The Mysteries of Pittsburgh" among the souvenirs. "It made me feel really happy."

As for the changes Mr. Thurber made in adapting the book, Mr. Chabon called them bold and in service of storytelling. "You're not just making a transcript of the novel with pictures, you're trying to reinvent the story so it works as a movie. ... I think it's going to be great."