Those Spartan guys sure knew how to work up a six-pack

Those Spartan guys sure knew how to work up a six-pack


Times Online.co.uk


March 25, 2007


by Daniel Foggo



AN EPIC movie has broken box-office records with a cast of actors whose physiques appear as chiselled as those of comic-book heroes.

Gerard Butler, the Scottish star of 300, which reenacts the clash of Persia and ancient Greece at the battle of Thermopylae in 480BC, has until now brushed off sceptics by insisting that his astonishing muscle definition was the product of a strict diet and four months' training.

"I was a bit annoyed when people suggested I was wearing a body suit, when I thought of all the work involved," he said. "I was aiming for the stars. I wanted to look superhuman, like nobody had ever looked before."

But, this weekend, ahead of the film's UK release, its makers admitted that computer trickery played a significant part in enhancing the hours spent in the gym.

Pierre Raymond, president of Hybride Technologies, a Canadian firm, said the physiques of the actors — 300 Spartan warriors against a horde of Persians — had been enhanced through the addition of computer-generated shadows. The result, he said, was to "show more of what they already had".

He likened the process to sharpening the contrast function on a television. "When you make a decision to shoot guys that workout-wise are very well built, if you light them and you start to play on contrast and having very dark scenes you will naturally increase [the body's] details," he said.

Raymond, however insisted none of the actors had been given any extra "bulk" to their muscles through the use of computer techniques.

"A lot of people are saying we were involved in increasing or inventing muscles for these guys but it is not the case," he said. "We were able to show more of what they had."

Raymond admitted that the overall effect was unrealistic.

The film, which was inspired by an obscure comic book, has broken the box-office record in America for a March release by taking $70m on its opening weekend.

Butler, 37, confessed that he had been considered out of shape before he began a course of ultra-intensive workouts with Mark Twight, a fitness trainer whom he described as a "nut job".

Movie fakery is nothing new...

- Younger body doubles are often used by Hollywood stars. Examples include Sharon Stone's bedroom sequences in last year's Basic Instinct 2.

- When Oliver Reed died of a heart attack in 1999 during the filming of Gladiator, his scenes were completed with a digitally enhanced double.

- For decades film-makers have simulated darkness by shooting in daytime using blue filters. Digital advances mean it is rarely used now.

- Bela Lugosi died in 1956 during the filming of Plan 9 from Outer Space, often voted the worst film ever made. He was replaced by a man who looked nothing like him, wearing a cape over his face.


http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/film/article1563941.ece