London: The parents of Madeleine McCann, the British toddler who went missing in Portugal last May, are negotiating with a Hollywood company to turn the story of their missing daughter into a movie.

Representatives of the couple have recently held talks with one of the world's largest entertainment firms, IMG, over selling the rights to their story in a deal likely to be worth millions, the British media reported here today.

"We have only had one very tentative discussion with IMG. It may or may not happen. If we feel any proposal in the media has validity in helping us find Madeleine, we are happy to discuss it," Clarence Mitchell, the spokesman for Gerry and Kate McCann, was quoted as saying. Mitchell has said that any 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." However, Gerry has denied the story. 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."

"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."

Source : PTI