Director Tim Disney comes to Seattle with his film "William"

Star academics, Doctors Julian Reed and Barbara Sullivan, fall in love with each other and with the idea of cloning a Neanderthal from ancient DNA. Against the express directive of University administrators they follow through on this audacious idea. The result is William: the first Neanderthal to walk the earth for some 35,000 years. William tries his best to fit into the world around him. But his distinctive physical features and his unique way of thinking--his “otherness”--set him apart and provoke fear. William’s story is powerful and unique, but his struggle to find love and assert his own identity in a hostile world is universal--and timeless.

Says Disney (who is the grandnephew of Walt Disney), "With that core of an idea my co-writer, J.T. Allen, and I set about creating a character who is cognitively different than his fellows, but no less human, and to explore how that difference might play out in his family and emerging manhood. We were determined to keep the story on a domestic scale, although the premise itself is very big. In the end, we found the character of William served as a powerful way to explore issues of “otherness” in a coming-of-age story."

WILLIAM was shot in Vancouver. It opens April 26th at the AMC Seattle 10 in the University District.