The mountains are "perfect", the castles "wonderful", the coastline is gorgeous and the cities ideal - but without a film studio, Hollywood executives said yesterday, Scotland will not be able to compete with other countries for major film deals.

After touring Scotland in a helicopter, dining in Glasgow and being shown the best landscapes the country can offer, leading film executives who have made films such as Children of Men, Crash, X-Men, Pirates of the Caribbean and Stardust still say the country needs a major sound stage to make shooting major blockbusters in Scotland practical.

Scottish Screen, the national film agency, and the UK Film Council took a group of Hollywood executives on a scouting trip of Scotland yesterday, beginning in Edinburgh and taking in Stirling, Rannoch Moor, Glen Coe and Ben Nevis, Fort William and Oban, Crinan, Dunoon, Loch Lomond and Dumbarton before heading back to Edinburgh.

However, Mike Heard, the vice-president of production for 20th Century Fox, who has worked on films such as X Men 3, Fantastic Four, Eragon and the forthcoming Jumper, said Scotland may be beautiful, dramatic and accessible - but needs a sound stage.

"The locations are wonderful. But the one thing that is hurting Scotland is the lack of a sound stage. If you look at the countryside and see how green it is, you know it rains here all the time," he said.

"And you need a stage when it rains and you are spending £250,000 a day shooting. It really costs to lose a day of filming. It will be difficult to bring films here until Scotland addresses the sound stage problem.

"When we shot X Men 3 in Vancouver, there was a stage that was 100,000 square feet - you don't need something that big, but 45,000 square feet is useful."

Mr Heard said there is a major 20th Century Fox movie in development, a fantasy epic called Wolfbrother, that could be shot in Scotland if indoor facilities were available.

Scotland currently attracts between £20m and £25m of location-based shooting every year, but it could be much more, the executives said.

Vicki Gabor, vice-president of finance for Walt Disney Pictures, echoed Mr Heard's comments: "I think the new tax breaks in this country the UK are really helping bring productions here, but unlike other countries in Europe there is no stage.

"The thing is, coming to a country like this, where do I go for cover? You have to account for the weather.

"I think if there is a facility, the volume of productions will come, but I agree, it is a little of a chicken and egg situation. The locations are so impressive: the variety of the terrain, the coast, the islands, and Glasgow can really double for New York or Chicago."

Mr Heard added: "The lack of a sound stage does put you off. But the locations are wonderful, especially the mountains, that scale of mountain is so hard to find in such an accessible way anywhere else."

Over the years there have been numerous attempts to set up studios in Scotland. The most high profile was a £60m plan backed by Sir David Murray and Sir Sean Connery, on a site outside Edinburgh, but it came to nothing.

There was also a private plan, backed by the actor James Cosmo, to site one in the Highlands, and another was mooted as part of a land development around Gleneagles.

Scottish Screen, which has in recent years moved away from backing a studio plan, once seriously mooted a plan for a sound stage, of 30,000 sq ft, to be built on Pacific Quay, in Glasgow. Again, the plan foundered.

Celia Stevenson, the head of inward investment for Scottish Screen, admitted that the tour and the comments of the movie executives could re-ignite the debate over the need for a large sound stage in Scotland.

"Currently we do not have a studio, although as we know it has been talked about for many years, but we are very good at finding spaces and transforming them into whatever film makers require, whether that can continue to be efficient, we will have to see," she said.

"Building a studio is a really big step. But obviously we listen to what our visitors are saying and we appreciate their comments, and they make their case very compelling.

"However, it does reawaken the subject."