Posted in: Movies | Tagged: Alan Moore, doug jones, guillermo del toro, HRL, neonomicon, the shape of water

Hoorrd! Hhoorrrd! Fish Monster/Human "Intimacy" Is A Go In Del Toro's 'The Shape Of Water'

A lot of readers are familiar with Watchmen, the seminal work of legendary wizard Alan Moore, but you may want to familiarize yourself with the fish-seminal work of Alan Moore, Neonomicon, before seeing Guillermo del Toro's upcoming film The Shape Of Water.

It seems that the movie might take some inspiration from Neonomicon, with plans to feature explicit sex between a fish monster and a human woman. Moore pioneered this concept, as he has so many others, by showing fish monster ejaculation and other bizarre and disturbing scenes in the 2010 Avatar Press book. That kind of thing is Del Toro's bag too, apparently, and he's going to have his fish monster "fuck the girl" in this movie.

In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, star Doug Jones relayed the plans:

How hard is it to make a monster a believable love interest?

A note Guillermo gave me, as far as [the Asset's] physicality goes, he kept pushing the sexy. This character has to be sexy. When watching the film you have to believe that someone could actually fall in love with him and find him sexy and want to take their clothes off in his presence. So how do you create a monster who does that? The sculpting process, the developing this character's look was years in the making. Guillermo enlisted the help of a fine artist who hadn't done much in the movie world named Mike Hill whom Guillermo had discovered at the trade show Monsterpalooza. And a lot of Mike Hill's pieces are now a part of Guillermo's collection at Bleak House. Mike Hill was actually on set with us doing the finishing touches on my makeup every day. He develop my colors and my shapes and my silhouette that became this sexy and beautiful creature.

Is it particularly challenging as an actor to film intimate scenes while you're wearing a full bodysuit?

Well, you have to find the mindset and storytelling brilliance of Guillermo del Toro when you're working on one of his films. You mentioned a minute ago that monsters are often secondary. Guillermo is the one director who can make a monster the leading man. In The Shape of Water he has created this fishman mutant, last of his kind, who becomes a sexy love interest. I don't know anyone else who could've pulled that off but him. When I asked him why this time does it need to involved full-frontal nudity — I mean, we're going for it! — and he harkened back to the Creature from the Black Lagoon and Frankenstein and any of the classic monster movies that helped develop his love of monsters. There was always a romantic side to these characters and relationships on film that never got actualized all the way. Guillermo said this time, the monster's going to actually fuck the girl. (Laughs.) A gentler way to say it is that this is the creature from the wet, black lagoon who actually gets the girl this time.

Uh…OK.

The Shape of Water hits theaters on December 8th.

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