Note: This post has been updated to include the latest 2011 Disney Dream Portraits further down in the post.
Continuing the “Disney Dream Portrait Series” that has put stars in all kinds of Disney fantasies, Leibovitz trained her famous lens this time on the undersea world of Ariel, heroine of “The Little Mermaid.” To get there, she dressed actress Julianne Moore and American swimming icon Michael Phelps in tails and scales.
“Yes, Julianne has a big mermaid tail; it’s interesting,” Leibovitz recalled from the shoot. “Michael, too. His movements were so graceful and beautiful you just felt like you were watching a real merman.”
The latest Leibovitz photography is part of her acclaimed series as Disney Parks continue, through 2008, the “Year of a Million Dreams” celebration on both coasts.
In the finished image captioned “Where another world is just a wish away,” shafts of light pierce the blue depths as Ariel (Moore) sits in her undersea world amid wavy coral and darting sea life. In the foreground of the frame, Phelps slips past, flipping his fins.
Planned for the June issue of Vanity Fair magazine – continues the renowned Liebovitz series of putting celebrities inside their Disney fantasies. Released in separate flights since January 2007, these have included:
UPDATED - New Disney Dream Portraits added March 2011
Jeff Bridges and Penelope Cruz as Belle and the "transformed" Prince from Beauty And The Beast:
Alec Baldwin and Olivia Wilde, Snow White & The Seven Dwarves:
Queen Latifah as The Little Mermaid's Ursula:
Scarlett Johanssen as Cinderella:
Beyonce as Alice in Wonderland with Lyle Lovett and Oliver Platt:
and David Beckham as the gallant Prince Phillip from "Sleeping Beauty.":
Rachel Weisz as Snow White:
Roger Federer as King Arthur from "The Sword in the Stone":
Julie Andrews as the Blue Fairy from "Pinocchio" with Abigail Breslin as Fira from "Disney Fairies.":
Jennifer Lopez as Jasmine and Marc Anthony as Aladdin:
and Whoopi Goldberg playing the Genie:
Giselle Bundchen as Wendy Darling, Mikhail Baryshnikov as Peter Pan:
and Tina Fey as Tinker Bell:
and Jessica Biel as Pocahontas:
Below is a video of the Moore/Phelps Mermaid shoot:
And here are a bunch of 'behind the scenes' pictures from the shoots:
And behind the scene shots from the 2011 shoot:
The behind the scenes images from the most recent shoot show Patti Smith as a pirate which means there are more to come!
