A MUSSELBURGH author is in talks with a top Scottish actor and director about turning his first novel into a movie.

Alex Brown, 54, owner of Ideal Flooring Solutions, recently travelled to London for a meeting with Robert Cavanah over the plan to bring his book Hit Me to the big screen.

Mr Cavanah has had starring roles in a wide range of productions including Cracker, Blue Dove, Cadfael, Hamish Macbeth, Kavanagh QC, Rose and Maloney, Rebus, Silent Witness, Highlander: The Raven, Casualty, DCI Banks, Waterloo Road, The Bill, The Governor, The Borgias and Hatfields & McCoys.

He played Robert Stevenson in the BBC television drama-documentary series Seven Wonders of the Industrial World, which chronicled the design and construction of the Bell Rock Lighthouse.

Mr Cavanah, who was born in Edinburgh, also played Adam Carnegie in The Royal for three series and Tommy Grant in EastEnders.

He starred in the 1998 ITV version of Wuthering Heights as Heathcliff. He played Ian in Emmerdale and guest starred in Outlander.

His film acting credits include Soccer Mom, Birthday, Fall of the Essex Boys, AB Negative, Lara Croft: Tomb Raider – The Cradle of Life and Sahara.

Hit Me, the darkly comic crime thriller written by Mr Brown, an ex-boxer, tells the story of former boxer Barnabas Wild, who is diagnosed with terminal cancer and ends up in the fight of his life.

He contacts a childhood friend, now a crime boss in Edinburgh, to have a hit put on him as the thought of dying in a hospital bed proves too much.

He then receives an urgent call from a consultant at the hospital who explains an error in recent test results. He does not have cancer, but the crime boss has gone missing.

The main character is named after a clergyman who served for 30 years at the former Tranent Methodist Church, which was transformed into the Bronx Boxing Gym, which is owned by Mr Brown.

Mr Cavanah said: “After reading Hit Me, I felt quickly the genre, colour of the characters and comedic inclination would make it a really enjoyable movie.

“I love anything that promotes Scottish talent, culture and character. This does all of that.”

Mr Brown is set for another meeting with Mr Cavanah in London in July.

Possible actors have already been discussed to play the characters.

He said: “I am very excited that someone like Robert Cavanah, whom I have watched on TV for many years, is showing such interest and passion about my book Hit Me, not only as a book but about it becoming a movie.

“We got on really well together and I could really see the movie in my mind as we discussed it during our meeting.

“I am a bit overwhelmed at the thought of going to London to spend a few weeks with Robert but I am also really looking forward to it and I am up for the challenge.

“Who would have thought it a year ago that I would be arranging to work on a treatment that could lead to a movie with a star like Robert, whom I feel is definitely the person who is right for the project?”

Blackwell’s Bookshop in Edinburgh will appear in a new trailer that is being produced for Hit Me which will be shown on YouTube, Facebook and Twitter.

The novel in eBook and paperback is available from Amazon.