Oscar Nominated Film Caught in Plagiarism Charge

The estate of the Pulitzer-winning playwright Paul Zindel has accused the film "The Shape of Water" of using the late writer’s work without credit, arguing that Guillermo del Toro’s movie, which is leading in Oscar nominations, was “obviously derived” from a 1969 play.

David Zindel, son of the American playwright, told the Guardian he believes his father’s work Let Me Hear You Whisper, a play about a female janitor in a research laboratory who bonds with a captive dolphin and tries to rescue the creature, is a source of inspiration for The Shape of Water. Del Toro’s film was nominated on Tuesday for 13 Oscars, including best picture, best director and best original screenplay.

The Shape of Water, the critically acclaimed film co-written by Del Toro and Vanessa Taylor, tells the story of a cleaner who works in a Baltimore laboratory in the 1960s and falls in love with a sea creature whom she attempts to rescue. In terms of the broad concept, specific plot points and some characters, the film has close similarities to Let Me Hear You Whisper, which was aired as a TV production nearly 50 years ago.

The creative team behind The Shape of Water,  has presented the film as an original idea and has not mentioned Zindel’s work as an inspiration.

In both stories, a female cleaner works a night shift at a lab and falls for an aquatic creature that is the subject of mysterious science experiments. Both women develop a relationship by bringing food to the animal and dancing with a mop in front of the tank to the tune of a love song.

The cleaner character in both stories learn to communicate with the creature, and both labs are involved in secretive military operations. The protagonists both discover imminent plans to kill the creature, and both labs mention “vivisection”.

The women in both stories also devise plans to rescue the animal and release it to the sea by sneaking it out in a laundry cart.   Both women are also friends with another janitor who helps them.

Paul Zindel, who died in 2003, won the 1971 drama Pulitzer for the play The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds.  Bonnie Zindel, the playwright’s former wife, said Let Me Hear You Whisper was one of the earliest plays he wrote and one of the first performed on television.

Fox Searchlight responded, saying: “Guillermo del Toro has never read nor seen Mr Zindel’s play in any form. Mr del Toro has had a 25 year career during which he has made 10 feature films and has always been very open about acknowledging his influences.

The director said the idea originated in part through a conversation with the novelist Daniel Kraus, who suggested a story about a “janitor that kidnaps an amphibian-man from a secret government facility”. Kraus’s website says the film is “based on an original idea” by him and Del Toro. Kraus did not respond to a request for comment.