Gerry and Kate McCann have thanked Ben Affleck for his "sensitivity" after he pulled his latest film over its uncanny similarities to their daughter's disappearance.

Gone Baby Gone is directed by the actor and stars his brother Casey in the role of a private detective trying to find a missing four-year-old girl.

The Hollywood thriller was to be screened at the London Film Festival next week, but has now had its UK premiere postponed.

At the US premiere in Los Angeles, Ben Affleck says he understands why the distributors, owned by Disney, decided to pull the film.

The actor said: "It just came down to the fact that there is a family there, and there is a country that has been exposed to the story and seems to have become to a certain degree emotionally sensitive to it.

"Disney thought they would err on the side of good taste and postpone it until it calmed down a bit."

Clarence Mitchell, family spokesman for the McCanns, praised the star's actions.

He said: "We thank him for being thoughtful enough and sensitive enough to Gerry and Kate's position to make such a commercial decision.

"Obviously we hope Madeleine will be found very soon to enable Kate and Gerry to move on, but also to enable him and the movie to go ahead in due course."

The film is based on the bestselling novel by Dennis Lehane.

It focuses on the desperate search for a young girl called Amanda who police believe was kidnapped from her bed after her parents left her home alone.

And the similarities do not end there.

The girl is played by a young actress called Madeline O'Brien, who bears a close resemblance to four-year-old Madeleine McCann.

The McCann case is covered extensively in the US.

In July, Gerry McCann travelled to Washington DC where he met the former Attorney General Alberto Gonsalez and appeared on a number of TV news programmes.

The film is released in the US on October 19.