The parents of Madeleine McCann have sanctioned talks with a Hollywood company about bringing the story of their missing daughter to the big screen.

Representatives of Kate and Gerry McCann met producers of the award-winning documentary film Touching the Void last month to hear proposals for a deal.

Their friends say that a film version of the mystery would bring Madeleine’s plight to a bigger audience, and could lead to information about her whereabouts and fund private investigators looking for her.

The development may also fuel criticism of the couple for trying to generate publicity and funds from their daughter’s disappearance.

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Clarence Mitchell, a spokesman for the couple, confirmed that a meeting was held last month with film-makers from IMG, an American-owned entertainment company.

“We have only had one very tentative discussion with IMG. It may or may not happen. If we feel any particular proposal in the media has validity in helping us find Madeleine, we are happy to discuss it,” he said.

Mr Mitchell, a former BBC journalist, said that a deal could generate some much needed funds for the Madeleine appeal.

“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,” he said.

The Bafta-winning film Touching the Void used documentary-style interviews intercut with dramatic reconstruction to tell the story of two British climbers trapped on the upper reaches of a mountain.

It is believed that the McCanns’ representatives were attracted to the proposal because of the company’s highly praised documentary about a teenage girl who vanished in the United States. The family of Elizabeth Smart, who vanished from her bedroom in Salt Lake City in 2002, cooperated in the making of The Elizabeth Smart Story, shown on Channel 4 last week.

The disappearance of the angelic-looking 14-year-old had many parallels with the Madeleine McCann mystery. The tale dominated American news coverage. Her family, like the McCanns, fell under early suspicion. So did a loner who had been working on the family home and died in custody as the prime suspect.

The truth was that Elizabeth had been kidnapped by a disturbed religious maniac and his wife, and kept against her will near the family home, wearing a veil to hide her identity.

The story had a happy ending nine months later when the girl was recognised and saved by police and returned to the safety of her family. The Elizabeth Smart Storyand Touching the Void were made by Darlow Smithson, which was bought by IMG in 2006.

A Disney film that bore striking similarities to the McCanns’ story was pulled from British cinemas last September for fear of offending Madeleine’s family. Gone Baby Gone recounted the tragic tale of a four-year-old girl snatched from her bed.

IMG is one of a number of companies to have approached the McCanns with proposals to turn their story into either a TV documentary or film. This appears to be the first proposal to have been taken seriously. Mr and Mrs McCann were aware of the meeting but did not attend.

The film project will be discussed at a meeting of the fund’s directors, including Mr McCann, tonight at his home in Rothley, Leicestershire.

Madeleine vanished six days before her fourth birthday from a Portuguese holiday apartment at Praia da Luz, in the Algarve, on May 3 last year.

On-screen child horror stories

A Cry in the Dark, 1988
Starring Meryl Streep, right, as Lindy Chamberlain, the Australian mother who was convicted in 1982 of murdering her baby daughter Azaria, who she claimed had been taken by a dingo in the Outback. The conviction was overturned in 1988. No body was found

Gone Baby Gone, 2007
Ben Affleck’s directorial debut tells the fictional story of a girl who is kidnapped from her bed after her parents leave her alone. The film, which had been due to be released in the UK last November, was postponed indefinitely last September after the disappearance of Madeleine McCann last year

Honour Thy Father and Mother: the True story of the Menendez Brothers, 1994;
Menendez: a killing in Beverly Hills, 1994
The televised trial of Erik and Lyle Menendez attracted attention when the brothers claimed that they had murdered their millionaire parents in 1989 in a response to a lifetime of abuse. The brothers were found guilty

The Amityville Horror series, 1979 to 2005
Based on the 28 days George Lutz and his family spent in a house where a mass murder had taken place the previous year. Ronald DeFeo was later convicted of killing his parents and four siblings, and Lutz claimed that the house was haunted by their ghosts

Everybody’s Baby: The Rescue of Jessica McClure, 1989
The film tells the story of 18-month-old Jessica McClure, who was trapped in a well for 59 hours. She is said to have no memory of the incident

Sources: IMDB.com, Times database

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