McCanns deny plan for Madeleine movie

The couple's spokesman, Clarence Mitchell, confirmed that he had met a major entertainment firm that wants to make a film about their story.

But Gerry McCann said later he and his wife Kate had no plans for a movie about Madeleine.

In his latest blog entry on the official Find Madeleine website, he wrote: "We can categorically deny that we are considering a movie about Madeleine's disappearance.

"This is simply untrue. We are approached by a huge number of media outlets regarding a myriad of projects, only a tiny proportion of which we agree to.

"Each proposal is considered on whether it is likely to have a positive effect, either directly or indirectly, on the search for Madeleine.

"As stated by Clarence, there was a preliminary discussion between a production agency and a representative of Kate and I to discuss the possibility of a documentary about the issues we have faced since Madeleine was abducted.

"Clearly, Europe is a long way behind the USA in terms of its response when a child goes missing."

Mr Mitchell and another McCann representative held a meeting with the IMG agency in London last month, although the couple themselves did not attend.

Earlier Mr Mitchell had said: "The media are making money out of the situation themselves and we feel it is only fair and right that some aspect of that should come to the fund to help find Madeleine."