What to expect from Guillermo del Toro’s next film: The Shape of Water

Guillermo del Toro’s next film, The Shape of Water, is still wrapped up in mystery. The film is set to be a “mysterious and magical journey” and an other-worldly story, set against the backdrop of Cold War era America circa 1963, a janitor (Sally Hawkins) in a government facility falls in love with an aquatic man (Doug Jones) who is being held captive for testing.”

Back last May (yeah 2016, folks) the plot of the film was shared online: The story is said to involve a mute janitor named Elisa (Hawkins) who falls for an amphibious man who’s being kept at the lab. She tries to free him with the help of her neighbour, who’s said to be portrayed by Richard Jenkins.

However, “the world outside of the lab, may prove to be more dangerous for the strange creature than Elisa could have anticipated.

Doug Jones, who plays the amphibious man in the film, recently shared some new details about the film’s plot. Speaking to Collider, he said:

“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.”

Guillermo del Toro hard at work as always…

This sounds like an extremely unique film and most likely something that Del Toro has never done before, and culturedeandsgeeks are ecstatic by the premise of the film.

The cast of this fantasy adventure includes a talented Michael Shannon (Midnight Special), Richard Jenkins (Bone Tomahawk), Michael Stuhlbarg (A Serious Man, Steve Jobs), and Octavia Spencer (The Help, Gifted). Coming sometime this year!