James Brabazon's "All Fall Down"

James Brabazon is an author, frontline-journalist and documentary filmmaker. Based in the UK, he has travelled to over 70 countries – investigating, filming and directing in the world's most hostile environments. He is the author of the international bestseller My Friend the Mercenary, a memoir recounting his experiences of the Liberian civil war and the Equatorial Guinea coup plot; and the Max McLean series of spy thrillers The Break Line and Arkhangel (UK) / All Fall Down (USA).

Here Brabazon dreamcasts an adaptation of All Fall Down:

There is only one possible actor who could play Max McLean, the Irish spy-assassin protagonist in All Fall Down – and that’s the amazing Jason O’Mara. They’re even from the same part of Ireland! Jason read the audio book for All Fall Down (which is more like a one-man dramatization) and totally brought Max to life. When I hear Max’s voice in my head, it’s Jason’s I can hear. He’s a top chap, too – zero celeb bs – which I think is vital for playing Max, who has the world’s most finely tuned bs detector!

Commander Frank Knight – Max’s enigmatic operator… Gary Oldman, for sure. He has form for playing tricky spies, and Frank Knight is as tricky as they come.

Rachel Levy, the brilliant, beautiful and devastating spectre that rises from Max’s past… that would have to be Rachel Weisz, of course. I fell in love with the idea of Rachel while I was writing All Fall Down – she’d be both as powerful but also as tragic and flawed as Max in her own way – and Rachel Weisz would do her justice.

Doc Levy, Rachel’s father. If only Laurence Olivier was still with us! So Michael Gambon it is. Greater love hath no man than he lay down his life for his friends… but does he?

Talia, the hard-as-nails Shabak agent keeping overwatch on Max and his movements in Israel would be really well cast in Einat Weitzman – no-nonsense authority mixed with an ambiguous, friendly side. But do you trust her?

Finally, and most excitingly, it’s how to cast Baaz – Bhavneet Singh – who saves and infuriates Max by turn. That’s got to be Manjot Singh. It would be amazing to see him break out of Bollywood into Hollywood – and show them how it’s done!

Visit James Brabazon's website.

My Book, The Movie: The Break Line.

--Marshal Zeringue