First Draft: Read the 2018 Oscar Nominees for Best Original and Adapted Screenplay

The Shape of Water

Screenplay by Guillermo del Toro & Vanessa Taylor; Story by Guillermo del Toro

Guillermo del Toro began to develop the story shortly after his breakout feature Cronos in 1993. It was a story loosely inspired by one of his favorite fairy tales written by the Grimm brothers — about a flounder that grants wishes for a fisherman and his wife. It also had a touch of Beauty and the Beast and The Little Mermaid. Despite pitching it to studios, no one wanted to greenlight it.

It wasn’t until years later when he was sitting with Daniel Kraus, the author that del Toro was co-writing the Netflix project Trollhunters with, that Kraus mentioned he had an idea for a story about an aquatic creature. “He said, ‘It’s about this secret government keeping an amphibian creature, and this janitor befriends him,’” del Toro told Deadline. “I said, ‘Say no more. I’m buying the idea from you; don’t write anything.’”

Del Toro began to write after fleshing out the characters and general era that it would take place. He wrote 30 pages. And then he got stuck. He showed what he had to Vanessa Taylor (Divergent, Game of Thrones, Alias). “She introduced the Russian restaurant idea and fleshed out the idea of the spies. That’s when it became a movie.”

Click here to read The Shape of Water.

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