Guillermo del Toro pitched the idea of filming The Shape of Water in black and white to the project’s financier Fox Searchlight, as a means of keeping the movie’s production budget down.
Ultimately, however, the filmmaker didn’t go that route, much to Shape of Water production designer Paul Austerberry’s self-admitted relief.
It’s no secret that the movie itself was partly inspired by the black and white Universal monster features that del Toro grew up watching (and loving), with Creature From the Black Lagoon being the most obvious influence.
That being said, del Toro painted a different picture of the situation when EW asked him about having almost made The Shape of Water in black and white, saying “It was one of those things that I knew I was not really interested in, but I knew I needed to appear reasonable.”