Legend of Tarzan Still

Is Somebody at WB Getting Carried Away with Photoshop?

Legend of Tarzan (Movie)

The goal here is to provide background on Tarzan and honest reactions and commentary on what’s going on in the present day — and in particular with Legend of Tarzan since that’s the big thing that’s happening in 2016 — and to not just to blindly follow along as part of the hype machine.  So when I see something that looks a little . . . . off . . . or when a conversation begins to develop elsewhere, I will join the conversation.

 

In this situation, I had some questions,but decided to initially remain silent.  Now, however,  there’s some chatter about it, so I’ll weigh in.

What I’m talking about is this:  WB released a new still yesterday and on first glance it looks great.  On second and third glances, it looks a little strange.  Here is some commentary lifted from one of the places on the web where it was posted:

It might be because my glasses broke just this morning and I can only sort of see, but Alexander Skarsgard looks profoundly weird in that still. I’m not sure what’s happening there, but it feels wrong

Screen Shot 2016-03-28 at 10.41.57 AM

 

This was something I started worrying about with the first, very impressive still that came out. On that one, it didn’t look unnatural – just, well, supernatural I suppose. Every time I see it I get a little nervous that maybe it’s too extreme and when I look at most of the shots in the trailer, he doesn’t look quite that bulked up or defined.
alexander-skarsgard-abs-zoom-7c7865bb-fa16-4496-87f1-a9ed850aa791

The thing is, using photoshop to make subtle enhancements is one thing. But if they go too far with it, and it becomes an object of ridicule on the internet, it could go from “Alexander Skarsgard’s Amazing Abs” (which is where it has been up until now) to “Alexander Skarsgard’s Photo-Shopped Abs” and that would be a bad thing for the promotion.

Here an un-photoshopped pic of skarsgard,, courtesy of BC, thanks! – scroll down.

 

Screen Shot 2016-03-29 at 4.39.38 PM

5 comments

  • What’s the line from Crazy Stupid Love? ‘It’s like you’re photoshopped!’
    The proportions do look a little off in the most recent still, partly because he’s in motion, toward the camera, a different angle from what we’ve seen before.
    I suspect some photoshop took place, but not as much as people think. Though I’m more amused by the artfully applied grime. 🙂
    I’ve never seen that photo of Alex before, but I’ll link to one that’s more relevant to the Tarzan timeframe, this is from late December 2013, it’s of Alex and his teammates from Walking With the Wounded at the South Pole, they’d skied there over the previous two weeks. This is right before Tarzan was greenlit.

    http://postimg.org/image/e9iexdkkz/full/

    So from this point he’d gain another 25-30 lbs of muscle, which is evident in his scenes from that final season of TB, which he filmed while prepping for Tarzan. SLJ mentioned Alex’s body in an interview that summer, so did Margot Robbie. Several of his TB castmates did as well.
    So while this photo could be considered a little odd looking, in that he looks much bulkier than the previous stills, and people will comment on that, there’s also the reality that there will be complaints about his body anyway: He’s steroided up, he’s photoshopped, etc. He can do Men’s Health/Fitness covers and detail his workout and his restrictive diet and there’ll be people who think it’s fake.

  • It looks a bit weird. Could that running picture maybe be a merge of Skarsgård and his stunt double? If it is a scene in which Tarzan is not just running but about to do something like fight, or jump up a tree or down a cliff or anything which would have required a stunt performer it might be that stunt double who is actually doing the running.

    • These are production stills, so while they may have been filming, I don’t think they’d be doing anything that required his, or anyone else’s, stunt doubles to be part of the picture.
      Alex, or anyone else, can look more or less bulky depending on the angle. There are stills from Generation Kill where he looks almost as bulked up as this but then you can’t tell in the series.
      So I’m still going with no, they really didn’t photoshop his bulk onto him.

  • That Armani underwear image is NOT Skarsgard. It is a look alike. It is a model called Maxim Budnick.

    Here you can see another snap from the same shoot where you can see it is not Skarsgard – https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/1b/8d/6b/1b8d6bb0d51c088195bbb7475aa54979.jpg

    On to Skarsgard – his abs are actually pretty good. They are a little bit enhanced in the first still where they are standing out but that could also because he was flexing really hard then.

    But there is some behind the scenes footage on youtube and you can see that he does have pretty defined abs.

    I think so far they have not gone overboard – and there will not be any need. His own abs are good enough to not need any photoshopping.

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