Doug Jones shares details for Del Toro’s The Shape of Water

Details for Guillermo Del Toro’s next directorial effort, THE SHAPE OF WATER, have been scarce since the film was announced back in August, 2016. So it’s with a big-ass smile on my face that I can report to you that actor Doug Jones has spilled a fair amount of beans as to the plot details of the enigmatic filmmakers next drama.

Billed as a Cold War piece, and boasting an impressive ensemble cast that includes actors Sally Hawkins, Michael Shannon, Richard Jenkins, Michael Stuhlbarg, and Octavia Spencer, THE SHAPE OF WATER sounds as if it’s going to be quite epic. Recently, Jones visited the Collider Nightmares studio, and while there, told tale of what we can expect from Del Toro’s upcoming film.

It’s a 1963 drama—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.

Meanwhile, there’s a love story that brews out of it, and that would be the cleaning lady played by Sally Hawkins. She comes and finds me, has sympathy on me, and then that’s the story that you’re really gonna follow with this whole backdrop.

It is artfully and beautifully [made]—if this doesn’t end up with Guillermo back at the Oscars, I will be surprised. I will be very surprised.

Good grief! Where’s that meme of Fry saying, “Shut up and take my money!” when you really need it? I am a huge fan of Mr. Del Toro, and think that what Jones is describing all sounds very exciting. It’s interesting to think that he’ll be taking on the role of yet another fish-man for Del Toro. It begs the question of just how much of his Abe Sapien HELLBOY training and mannerisms will transfer over in the filming of this peculiar picture.

THE SHAPE OF WATER has yet to nail down a concrete release date, but a llittle bird told me that since the film has recently wrapped on its production, it won’t be long until Fox Searchlight gives the good word on when we can expect this curious war-time picture to hit theaters.