Doug Jones Shares New Details on Guillermo Del Toro’s THE SHAPE OF WATER
There is still so much that we don’t know about Guillermo del Toro’s next film, The Shape of Water. What we do know is that it’s an “other-worldly love story, set against the backdrop of Cold War era America circa 1963.” It’s also said to be a “mysterious and magical journey.”
It was later rumored that the story follows a “mute janitor named Elisa (Sally Hawkins) who falls for an amphibious man who's being kept at the lab where she works. She tries to break him out with the help of her neighbor (probably played by Richard Jenkins), but ‘the world outside of the lab, however, may prove to be more dangerous for the amphibious man than Elisa could have anticipated.’”
We now have some additional information on the film thanks to Doug Jones, who will be playing the amphibious man in the story. While talking to Collider he thought it'd be cool to let some interesting new details slide out about the plot:
“It’s not a sci-fi [film], it’s not a genre film, but I am a creature in it. I’m a fish man that’s kind of a one-off. I’m an enigma, nobody knows where I came from; I’m the last of my species so I’m like a natural anomaly. And I’m being studied and tested in a U.S. government facility in 1963, so the Russian Cold War is on, the race for space is on, so there’s all that backdrop and that undercurrent. I’m being tested for how can they use me for advantages in military or space travel, or my technology—can we make this usable for humans? So they’re trying to keep me a secret from the Russians.”
This really sounds like an interesting love story between an amphibious creature and a cleaning lady, who will be played by Sally Hawkins (Blue Jasmine, Happy-Go-Lucky). The rest of the cast includes Michael Shannon (Midnight Special), Richard Jenkins (Bone Tomahawk), Michael Stuhlbarg (A Serious Man, Steve Jobs), and Octavia Spencer (The Help, Gifted).
I love it when Del Toro makes original film projects. The guy is a great storyteller, and I love when he just lets his imagination loose. I can’t wait to see how this film turns out.