The fertile imagination of Guillermo del Toro perhaps gets no better display than in his dazzling “The Shape Of Water.” The romantic monster movie is a fantastical creature feature, against a Cold War thriller backdrop, that also acts a love letter to the movies. It’s a high wire feat, that looks like it costs tens upon tens of millions dollars, but actually came in under $20 million (after rebates). That would be a shoestring budget for anybody else, but del Toro did everything he could to have the latitude to execute his vision. At one point, he even considered making the film in black and white.
It’s hard to believe after watching “The Shape Of Water” that it could exist as anything but the colorful, gorgeously designed movie that it is. But speaking to The Wrap, del Toro explains how he pitched two different versions of the picture.
“[I financed the first round of creature design myself] because I wanted the freedom to go anywhere. I wanted to go to a studio with the design and the idea for the movie, and basically say, ‘You guys tell me how much you want me to do it for, and I’ll do it for that number. There will be no negotiation,’ ” he said. “I went to Fox Searchlight, and they said, ‘Under $20 million for color, under $17 for black and white.'”
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Indeed, del Toro didn’t really know if his gambit would work, but he did believe that if it came down to it, “The Shape Of Water” would look just as lovely in black and white.
“That was honestly a battle I was expecting to lose. I was of two minds. On one hand I thought black and white would look luscious, but on the other hand, I thought it would look postmodern, like I was being reflective rather than immersed. It’s good, because it got me three million more,” the director said about this ultimate decision to go color.
Even then, he was rubbing together every last nickel to make the movie happen. “I didn’t get my salary as producer or co-writer or director, except for guild minimum. That bought me a couple of days extra, a couple of cranes, it bought me a couple of costumes,” del Toro added.
In the end, the filmmaker created one of his finest works and one of the year’s best movies. “The Shape Of Water” is now playing in limited release.