Affleck film dropped due to McCann case similarities

Hollywood actor Ben Affleck has had his directorial debut sidelined due to its uncanny similarity to the Madeleine McCann case.

The film, Gone Baby Gone is about two police detectives' search for a missing girl.

The young actress who plays the missing girl is called Madeleine O'Brien and bears a startling resemblence to the missing four-year-old.

The film was due to be released this December but has been postponed indefinitely by the film's distributor Buena Vista International.

Based on the 1998 novel by Dennis Lehane, Gone Baby Gone was filmed last year, long before McCann's disappearance in May this year.

Affleck said he was "acutely aware of the situation" regarding Madeleine McCann and did not want to release them film if it was going to "inflame anybody's sensitivities".

The film was scheduled to screen at next month's London Film Festival but has since been dropped from the line up.

- NZ HERALD STAFF