AN EX-BOXER from Musselburgh could be set for Hollywood stardom if his debut book is selected for the big screen.

Alex Brown, 53, who owns Ideal Flooring Solutions on Musselburgh High Street and the Tranent-based Bronx Boxing Gym, is hoping that his novel ‘Hit Me’ will pack a punch with film bosses.

He sent the idea of his book to American-based company Movie Pitcher, which can pitch scripts to producers, on January 19 He was over the moon this week to hear that his book had been chosen to be promoted to Hollywood executives, as he had been told it could take months or years.

“I know that they only pitch original ideas and ones that meet a certain degree of being successful, but I was so sure of the originality of the movie/book idea that I sent it off,” he told the Courier.

If a producer wants to publish the rights to make a movie, Alex could receive $50,000 just for the idea and $700,000 for a script.

With a lifelong interest in movies, Alex, who is also a keen charity marathon runner, owned three video hire shops in the 1980s.

His own story is about Barnabas Wild, an outgoing, very happy character who has been lucky in everything he has done.

Alex named his main character after a clergyman who served for 30 years at the former Tranent Methodist Church, which was transformed into the Bronx gym. His name appears on a memorial stone which is still a feature in the building.

Known as Barny to his huge amount of friends, he is liked by everyone in the community, from priests to gangsters and everyone in between.

Alex said: “I can’t stress enough how lucky Barny was until one day he attends a routine hospital appointment and his world falls through the floor – his luck has turned upside down.

“After tests, the doctor breaks the chilling news that Barny has a progressive terminal illness. He will go fast and will lose his independence very quickly.

“After hearing this and that he will be bedridden, he goes home and tries to end his own life for fear of what’s to come. However hard he tries, each attempt fails and he can’t bring himself to do it.

“Barny decides to ask a friend who is the most feared gangster in the country to put a hit out on him and to make it quick, and be sure he does not see it coming.

“The gangster very reluctantly agrees. He promises it will be the best hitman in the world and he will not know when it’s coming.

“Barny heads home jumping at every noise he hears, because as much as he wants this, he is still frightened.

“A couple of days go by and Barny gets a call from the doctor’s office with what they feel is amazing news – the results of his tests had been mixed up with another patient and there was nothing wrong with him. He is delighted and jumps for joy, until it dawns on him that he must get to the gangster and have him take the hit off.

“He sneaks all the way to the gangster’s house worrying he might get hit before he gets to the gangster, but when he finally arrives he is told no one knows where the gangster is. He has disappeared and only he can remove the hit. So we have the luckiest guy and the best hitman in the world – what will happen next?”

Alex’s boxing career began aged 11, when he took part in his first fight. As a a teen he was tipped for success as a professional boxer by his trainers at Sparta Amateur Boxing Club in Edinburgh.

But after contracting tuberculosis at 15, he was forced to undergo three years of treatment and subsequently lost his passion for boxing.

However, he climbed back into the ring in his early 20s and just “fell in love all over again” with the sport. He eventually retired from boxing in 1992.

Alex is now appealing for a ghostwriter to help him with other projects.