Playstation ad style photo

[Retouch_elk]

Hi! Does anybody know how to achive the effect often seen in lurzer archive or the tbwa paris ads for sony playstation?
The photos often seem more of illustration/painting than photo. Very smooth but also sharp.
I ´ve attached a picture for reference. I think particularly the background
and the sofa looks more like paintings.
I´ve tried tweaking photos in photomatix, but the result is often to dark and
spotty. Thank for any help!

[DJSoulglo]

search for:

Dragan
Dave Hill
Grunge

On these very forums.