Think back to when you were 14. Did you ever have that urge to just run off and live on your own, breaking free of your parents' dopey rules and restrictions? Pretty much all of us probably mulled that one.

Now, you'll be able to live out that fantasy vicariously thanks to "Toy's House," the new movie shooting in Greater Cleveland.

The comedy follows three teen boys who set out to build their own makeshift house in the woods where, soon, everything goes haywire. Written by Chris Galletta and directed by Jordan Vogt-Roberts, it is being produced by Big Beach Films in conjunction with Low Spark Films, the Chagrin Falls company run by Tyler Davidson.

The cast includes Alison Brie from "Mad Men" and "Community," Nick Offerman of "Parks and Recreation," and his wife, Megan Mullally of "Will & Grace" fame.

Davidson made a splash last year with the acclaimed "Take Shelter," the psychological drama starring Michael Shannon and Jessica Chastain that filmed in Lorain County in 2010. He has vowed to try to bring more productions to his home turf (he grew up in Chagrin Falls and lives in South Russell), and this will be his third film made in Northeast Ohio, beginning with "The Year That Trembled" in 2001.

The twist is that while Cleveland's downtown had its cinema close-up in "Marvel's The Avengers," and the suburbs will be spotlighted in the upcoming "Fun Size" in October, "Toy's House" will spotlight the forests and Metroparks.

"It should be a great source of pride for Greater Clevelanders, how beautiful our hiking, nature and forest areas are, and we're planning on showcasing as many of them as possible," said Davidson. "People just think of the Midwest in general of having this fairly homogenized look, and that's just not the case."

He was speaking this week as the 60-person crew prepared to shoot some interior scenes at a house on Edsal Drive in Lyndhurst. Upcoming locations for the 26-day shoot include North Royalton, Peninsula, the South Chagrin Reservation in the Cleveland Metroparks, Happy Days Ledges and Nelson Ledges, before wrapping Aug. 4.

Davidson was able to bring the project here because of Ohio's Motion Picture Tax Credit. The production received a credit of about $460,000, and the Ohio Department of Development estimates the film will spend $1.6 million in the state.

"Toy's House," which will hit theaters sometime in 2013, is the creation of writer Galletta. While studying film at Columbia University in New York and working in the music department for "Late Show With David Letterman," Galletta started writing a story about a couple of 14-year-olds.

"It's inspired by a bunch of friends I had in Eltingville," he said, referring to his neighborhood in Staten Island, N.Y. "It seems like all we ever did was mess around in the woods."

Galletta eventually quit his job and moved to Los Angeles, living on savings while working on the script, which took about 18 months to complete. After that, it was back to New York to start looking for a job.

"I finished the script and left it with a friend who knew someone at Lionsgate," Galletta said. "I never thought anything would come of it."

A few weeks later, he got a call from an agent who wanted to represent him and try to sell the script.

Insert angelic bells, heavenly chorus, streaming sunbeams.

This is decidedly not how it's supposed to happen. You don't land an agent with your first script, let alone sell it, let alone actually have it produced.

"I'm making sure I look around every day and appreciate it," said Galletta. "I was just hoping to get an agent."

The script was scooped up by producer John Hodges at Big Beach, which has produced such films as "Little Miss Sunshine" and "Our Idiot Brother." His company went in search of a co-financing partner, and last September, Davidson and his co-producer, Bob Ruggeri, found themselves in a Starbucks in Toronto reading Galletta's words simultaneously on their Kindles.

"The thing that struck me, and here we are reading side by side, was that the laugh-out-loud quotient is among the highest I've ever encountered," said Davidson, who was in Canada for screenings of "Take Shelter" at the Toronto International Film Festival.

"We were just constantly laughing. And Bob would say, 'What scene are you on, what page are you on?' Even at the screenplay stage, we were having this communal experience."

The other big fan of the script was director Vogt-Roberts.

"In Hollywood, you get sent a lot of garbage," he said. "But this was something I had a visceral response to. It was such a great combination of being stylized, smart, funny and extremely heartfelt."

Vogt-Roberts (Vogt is pronounced vote), whose roots are in stand-up and sketch comedy, had made short films and directed TV series -- his "Mash Up" will be on Comedy Central this fall -- but this is his first feature film.

And he has a great cast to work with. In addition to Brie, Offerman and Mullally, there's Mary Lynn Rajskub, Thomas Middleditch and Tony Hale. The three main boys are played by Nick Robinson, Gabriel Basso and Moises Arias.

"We have these incredibly talented comedians, improvisers and character actors coming in for just a couple of pages or a couple of lines," said Vogt-Roberts. "We have this guy, Mark Evan Jackson from L.A. [playing one of the dads], who I think is one of the most talented improvisers on the planet."

The film is in the vein of the 1980s movies "Stand By Me," "The Goonies" and "E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial," said Galletta, who originally set it in Staten Island, the most suburban of New York City's five boroughs.

"I only wanted to be protective of the idea that it be a Spielbergy kind of suburb, and this" -- he said, motioning to Lyndhurst's red-brick houses -- "works perfectly."

It's his first time in Ohio. He hopes to sneak in a few side trips.

"It's beautiful here," said Galletta. "We want to go to Cedar Point, Little Italy. I want to see the house from 'A Christmas Story.' I want to play golf. Golf seems big around here. I brought my clubs. But there isn't any time."

Note: "Toy's House" is currently seeking extras between ages 18-25. If interested, send your photo to toyshousebackground@gmail.com