Guillermo del Toro, lying to win?
The screenplay for The Water Form was nominated in the screenwriters' union awards, although it did not win, as it did in the last Golden Globes or in the most recent awards of the British Film Institute, better known as BAFTA. The shape of the water is also considered one of the 10 best films of the year, according to the American Film Institute. In the official answer to the study in charge of the tape, the company Fox Searchlight, also mentioned in the complaint, makes sure that the accusations do not merit.
On February 20, more than 7,000 members of the Academy received their electronic ballots to express their choices in this 90th edition of the Oscars. They have until the next 27 to complete their vote in the 24 contest categories. The results will be announced on March 4 during the award ceremony at the Dolby Theater in Los Angeles.
Guillermo del Toro is taking everything with his latest film, La forma del agua. From the Golden Lion of the Venice International Festival to the 13 nominations he will defend at the Oscars - including the best original screenplay - the most nominated film of the year. A list of recognitions for this love story between an aquatic creature and a cleaning lady. A victorious tour now marred by the accusation presented that accuses the Mexican filmmaker of plagiarizing the work of the Pulitzer Prize Paul Zindel Let Me Hear You Whisper.
The complaint, filed Wednesday in California by the late author's son, David Zindel, says The Way of Water borrows too many elements of the work that the Pulitzer Prize wrote in 1969. According to legal documents, Zindel's work "tells the story of a lonely cleaning lady who works in the night shift in a laboratory where animal experiments are conducted for military use." The same document adds that in the Pulitzer prize text the protagonist is fascinated by the underwater creature, which is enclosed in a glass tank, and manages to communicate with it thanks to the music of some old records.
"When she discovers that the authorities plan to kill the creature for scientific progress, the woman devises a plan to free the child by kidnapping it in a clothes cart and releasing it on a pier that opens onto the ocean to free her," continues the synopsis of Let Me Hear You Whisper presented in the complaint. Zindel is best known for the work with which he won the Pulitzer Prize in 1971, The effect of gamma rays on daisies.
The work was adapted to the screen in 1972 with Paul Newman as director and his wife, Joanne Woodward, as the protagonist. Zindel died in 2003. The complainants claim that both Del Toro and the production knew the author's work as producer Daniel Kraus suggested his adaptation to the Mexican filmmaker. An avid reader and with extensive knowledge especially in the field of fantasy literature, Del Toro has publicly acknowledged, according to the complaint, his admiration for the work of Zindel.
The document also highlights the coincidence that the Mexican director began working on his project in the same year that a television production of Zindel's work was broadcast. "That and other details about the script and the production of the tape are clear evidence that the defendants infringed (the rights) of the work of Zindel knowingly," summarizes the text.
