Guillermo del Toro recently called The Shape of Water his proudest achievement to date, so we’re willing to bet he wouldn’t go back and change anything about the film even if he could. But according to a new report by Entertainment Weekly today, the visionary filmmaker’s original pitch was indeed quite different.
Del Toro wanted to film The Shape of Water in black & white. Fox Searchlight, however, was against the idea, ultimately convincing Del Toro to shoot in color.
Reading the article, I couldn’t help but wonder what The Shape of Water would’ve looked like in black & white. So I pulled some screen-grabs from the trailer and did a little image editing on them. Needless to say, Del Toro’s latest would’ve been stunning even without any color, feeling like a classic Universal Monsters movie.
Maybe we’ll get a black & white version on Blu-ray? Here’s hoping.
The film is set against the backdrop of Cold War era America circa 1962. In the hidden high-security government laboratory where she works, lonely Elisa (Sally Hawkins) is trapped in a life of isolation. Elisa’s life is changed forever when she and co-worker Zelda (Octavia Spencer) discover a secret classified experiment.
Michael Shannon, Richard Jenkins, Michael Stuhlbarg and Doug Jones also star.
The Shape of Water first has an exclusive release in New York on December 1, 2017, followed by a limited release date of December 8, 2017.
