Guillermo del Toro is taking a "sabbatical for a year as a director".
The 53-year-old Mexican filmmaker has recently helmed the new monster movie ‘The Shape of Water’ and admitted he was meant to start a new production, but has instead decided to step away from the camera for a year.
Speaking to Variety, del Toro said: "I’m taking a sabbatical for a year as a director.
"I was going to do ‘Fantastic Voyage’, but after ‘The Shape of Water’ I need to take pause."
‘The Shape of Water’ follows mute, isolated woman Elisa (Sally Hawkins) who works as a janitor in a government laboratory in 1962 but her life changes forever when she discovers the lab’s classified secret is an amphibious creature known as The Asset (Doug Jones).
As Elisa develops a unique bond with The Asset she soon learns that its fate and very survival lies in the hands of a hostile government agent and a marine biologist.
The two lead characters never speak a word to each other over the course of the plot and del Toro’s decision to do this was to emphasize that love is "not about words but about emotion".
Speaking exclusively to BANG Showbiz, del Toro said: "The two lead characters don’t speak because love is not about words but about emotion and identifying an essence with the other and I thought it would be more powerful if they don’t tell each other ‘I love you’ or ‘How was your day?’
"Instead it was a real connection. The only way to talk about love would be through singing and there’s a beautiful sequence in the movie which is a musical number where she gets to sing and all these things are related and I think that everything has been planned."
Guillermo del Toro is taking a year off from directing
