The controversy surrounding the “Shape of Water” budget is bonkers
Guillermo del Toro’s newest film, The Shape of Water, is a monster-movie love-story masterpiece, but getting those reviews wasn’t easy. The director recently opened up about working with a smaller budget than his usual blockbusters — $19.5 million to be exact — and the controversy surrounding it.
Del Toro is known for creating fantastical worlds and pushing the limit when it comes to what even the tiniest details symbolize; color motifs, music queues, and even costume fabrics are what make his movies so unique. The emerald color throughout TSOW doesn’t just represent the color of the water in which the monster lives, but the future. To get that kind of direction and message onscreen takes a lot of money, something del Toro didn’t have much of for this visionary romance.
“It was a terrible filmmaking experience,” del Toro told Yahoo Entertainment. “Very difficult, very difficult. We crammed $60 or $70 million dollars of budget into a movie that had only $19.5. But we wanted it to look enormous. So it demanded huge sacrifices. It doesn’t show in the movie. The movie’s gorgeous, expansive, poetic. But making it was very, very hard.”
“When he looks at me, He sees me as I am.” #TheShapeofWater — now playing nationwide. Get tickets: https://t.co/VmzrSsoS2V pic.twitter.com/UzHMbccSMY
— The Shape of Water (@shapeofwater) January 2, 2018
Sacrifices to the film’s aesthetic were also made in the budgeting process with Fox Searchlight, which was the first to greenlight del Toro’s vision. Originally, the director wanted to shoot all of Shape of Water in black and white, but when the time came for Fox’s production studio to bankroll the film, they decided they would only do so if this idea was abandoned. “To be disarmingly and horribly honest, black and white was a pawn sacrifice,” del Toro told Entertainment Weekly.
#TheShapeofWater is now playing in theaters nationwide. Click the link to see where it's playing near you. https://t.co/VmzrSsoS2V pic.twitter.com/O79fWqbPbZ
— The Shape of Water (@shapeofwater) December 29, 2017
Despite these struggles, adversity seems to have created beauty. The esteemed director, known for his whimsical tales in Pans Labyrinth and Crimson Peak, even said that this is his favorite film yet. And if that’s the case, it’s sure to be a hit with audiences and the Academy alike.
