Guiller­mo del Toro dives into The Shape of Water

Direc­tor Guiller­mo del Toro and cin­e­matog­ra­ph­er Dan Laust­sen, who pre­vi­ous­ly col­lab­o­rat­ed on Mim­ic and Crim­son Peak, are expect­ed to bring yet anoth­er mys­ti­cal adven­ture to screens in 2017. The Mex­i­can fan­ta­sist, who took to Twit­ter on Mon­day to announce that prin­ci­pal pho­tog­ra­phy is under­way in Toron­to, has described him­self as ​“extreme­ly blessed and brave” to be involved with the project. It marks the sec­ond time del Toro has filmed in the Cana­di­an city, and he has revealed his inspi­ra­tion for the film came when shoot­ing Pacif­ic Rim in ear­ly 2012.

The sto­ry is set dur­ing the most tur­bu­lent years of the Cold War, with Sal­ly Hawkins play­ing the part of Elisa, a care­tak­er in the mys­te­ri­ous lab­o­ra­to­ry that hous­es Michael Shannon’s semi-amphibi­ous man. The ensem­ble cast also includes Oscar win­ner Octavia Spencer, Michael Stuhlbarg and Richard Jenk­ins. Even more intrigu­ing­ly, the screen­play has been penned by Game of Thrones and Diver­gent writer Vanes­sa Taylor.

The world of The Shape of Water is quin­tes­sen­tial del Toro, at once reaf­firm­ing his com­mit­ment to mod­ern fan­ta­sy film­mak­ing and his flair for insert­ing super­nat­ur­al traits into an oth­er­wise ordi­nary set­ting. His Latin her­itage con­tin­ues to shine through in his work, most recent­ly in the form of char­ac­ters such as La Muerte and Xibal­ba in The Book of Life, which he pro­duced, echo­ing Mayan beliefs in the after­life and the exis­tence of hell. The Shape of Water is no excep­tion, nor­mal­is­ing the sub­hu­man in a world strug­gling with the con­se­quences of human carelessness.

More than ever, we require films that force war to take a back­seat in favour of old-fash­ioned escapism. Del Toro is a sin­gu­lar sto­ry­teller and, paired with an accom­plished cast who will look to imbue the char­ac­ters with all the mag­ic that is pre­sumed of them, it will be intrigu­ing to see if he car­ries on the fabled, oth­er­world­ly tone of his 2006 mas­ter­piece Pan’s Labyrinth. What­ev­er the out­come, we can’t wait to enter anoth­er one of del Toro’s worlds.

**Update 8 Novem­ber, 2016**

Guiller­mo del Toro has announced via Twit­ter that shoot­ing has now wrapped, which means all being well the film is like­ly to be released in the first part of 2017. We’ll keep you updat­ed as and when we find out more.