A Fan is Recreating Blade Runner Entirely in Microsoft Paint

By Cameron Wade  |  October 20, 2016 | 1:05pm
Art by David MacGowan
Movies News blade runner

David MacGowan says he doesn’t have any particular talent when it comes to art, but that doesn’t stop him from forging ahead when it comes to his current project: recreating the entirety of Blade Runner in Microsoft Paint.

Begun back in July, MSP Blade Runner is “A shot by shot re-enactment of Blade Runner through the magic of Microsoft Paint. More or less.” And when MacGowan says shot-for-shot, he means it. Even seemingly unimportant shots of someone lighting a cigarette or a reaction shot of a tertiary character are all replicated here.

Of course, that doesn’t mean MacGowan isn’t adding his own flair to the story, like when Rick Deckard asks the reader, “Hey, what are you waiting for, a voiceover or something?” in a reference to the excruciatingly terrible narration the studio forced Harrison Ford to record for the film’s theatrical cut because they were worried people wouldn’t understand the movie.

But even with their curiously circular heads and simplistic faces, MacGowan is actually pretty good at capturing Blade Runner’s characters’ likenesses. The closeups on Rachel and Deckard are unmistakably Sean Young and Harrison Ford, which is quite a feat, considering MacGowan’s medium of choice.

Explaining his motivation for his remake to Motherboard, MacGowan said:

I used to draw really crappy basic MS Paint pics for a favorite pop group’s fan site, and they always seemed to raise a smile. The idea of doing something else with MS Paint, a kind of celebration of my not being deterred by lack of artistic talent, never really went away.

Posting one or two panels a day, MacGowan has reached the scene where Deckard and Gaff investigate the replicant in Leon’s apartment, a little less than halfway through the movie. So if you can’t bear the wait until Blade Runner 2049, throw on the Vangelis soundtrack, head over to MacGowan’s Tumblr and enjoy a new way to appreciate the original classic.

 
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