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Articles by Bryan Young
Big Shiny Robot: short-form content as gateway to rediscovering classic short films
Attention spans are shrinking. For many folks, entertainment is no longer books and films; it’s short-form nonsense and skits that proliferate across social media like TikTok, Instagram, Facebook Reels and many more. Hell, even YouTube is on it with a shorts tab. The content is punchy and quick, designed to be viewed on a phone, as one is mindlessly scrolling from one video to the next, looking for that easy hit of dopamine.
A Trust That Delivers: My Four Specific Commitments for Salt Spring
By Bryan Young, candidate for the Salt Spring Island Local Trust Committee When Salt Spring Insights asked islanders to rate island service organizations and public agencies, only 11 per cent said the Islands Trust was doing a good job – dead last after the Hospital Foundation, the Fire District, North Salt Spring Waterworks, Community Services, LCC, and CRD. I strongly support the Trust and its preserve and protect mandate. I do not cite this polling lightly.
Off-leash dogs and abandoned poop bags are spoiling Salt Lake City parks and trails.
I don’t say this lightly, but bad pet owners are a plague in Salt Lake City—particularly at our parks and throughout our expansive system of hiking trails. I truly don’t mean to be inflammatory. But it is astounding to me how often people think their dogs are special little exceptions to every clearly-posted placard, who think their dog’s poop doesn’t stink. Go to Memory Grove and up City Creek Canyon. Watch all of the dogs running wild in the on-leash areas of the park and bathing in the E.
Big Shiny Robot: What makes for a great fan convention?
I’ve been to a lot of conventions and conferences over the years, first as a fan, then as a journalist and now as a guest. I’ve been on stage with everyone from fellow fans to the likes of Carrie Fisher and, over the years, some of the biggest names in entertainment. I’ve even run some conferences and worked to elevate panel programming at a number of shows on behalf of the organizers. All of this is to say that I know my way around a convention.
UTA is moving transit in the wrong direction with planned rate hike.
The Utah Transit Authority is planning a rate hike, increasing the price on their already unaffordable transit system for the vulnerable users who currently have problems paying fares. It’s astonishing how UTA has come up with the exact wrong approach to dealing with their financial and public transit situations.
Big Shiny Robot: Late summer geek media picks.
Dungeons & Dragons: Horrified: Ravenloft; Star Wars: Maul – Shadow Lord; Whalefall and more. Star Wars: Maul - Shadow LordDisney+ It’s hard to believe summer’s already drawing to a close. Just yesterday, we were melting beneath the withering heat of record high temperatures.
Bryan Young to Run for SSI Local Trustee
"The Trust is broken." How many times have we heard that? Well, when trust is broken, you don't throw it away – you repair it. Maybe not at the Repair Café, but through the work of the two trustees we will elect on October 17. We repair it, because we need a strong Islands Trust to preserve and protect the places we love, and to be ready for challenges like climate change, ecosystem loss, and the need for affordable housing.
Star Wars Visions: The Ninth Jedi’s Elegant Storytelling And What it Can Offer Screenwriters
Warning: this article will feature spoilers for the series Star Wars: The Ninth Jedi. Star Wars: The Ninth Jedi (2026). Courtesy of Lucas Film. Star Wars: Visions began as an out-of-universe experiment on the part of Lucasfilm with the intention of seeing how Japanese storytellers and their world-class animation studios interpret the world of Star Wars.
Spider-Man: Brand New Day’s Script Hews Close to Theme and Proves There’s Still Creative Vitality at Marvel
This will contain major spoilers for Spider-Man: Brand New Day. Spider-Man: Brand New Day (2026). Courtesy of Columbia Pictures Spider-Man: Brand New Day is the fourth installment of the latest live-action iteration of everyone’s favorite neighborhood webhead on the big screen.
As physical media disappears, a lot of our creative culture disappears with it.
Silent films are a delightful rabbit hole into which to descend, and lately I’ve fallen right into Wonderland. A wealth of films has been preserved over the years, but far more have been lost. Charlie Chaplin, the biggest star in the world at one time, was wealthy enough to archive almost all of his films, and only one film from his career is truly lost to time, 1914’s Her Friend the Bandit.
Three Lessons from the Screenplay from ‘Supergirl’
This article will include major spoilers for Supergirl. Supergirl (2026). Courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures Supergirl is the latest film in the new James Gunn-led DC universe and tells the story of Kara Zor-El, played wonderfully by Milly Alcock, best known prior to this for her role on the first season of Game of Thrones: House of the Dragon.
Bringing Toys to Life – What ‘Toy Story 5’ Can Teach Screenwriters
Toy Story 5 (2026). Courtesy of Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures Going back to the same conceit over the course of five different films can seem like you might wear out your welcome or dry up the lake of a concept right before the very eyes of your audience.
Big Shiny Robot: Inviting people into fandoms through “gateopening.”
Sharing love for creative work through positivity and the opposite of “gatekeeping” Star Wars: The Force AwakensLucasfilm I’ve given myself a number of summer challenges this year: reading, movies, writing, etc. They’re all going swimmingly. But I have another one I want to add and I’m inviting you all to join me. This summer, I’ve decided to share things that bring me joy with those around me.
Interview with ‘Wonder Man’ Co-Creator and Showrunner Andrew Guest
Wonder Man (2026). Courtesy of Marvel Andrew Guest got his start in television writing working his way up from the bottom. His first credited episode of television is from the 2003 series Hope and Faith starring Faith Ford and Kelly Ripa. He kept working his way up to shows like 30 Rock, Community, and Suburgatory. He consulted on the Marvel television Hawkeye show and his first shot to run a show came with Marvel’s Wonder Man. Wonder Man isn’t your average Marvel show.
Interview with ‘A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms’ Co-Creator and Showrunner Ira Parker
A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms (2026). Photo by Steffan Hill/HBO Ira Parker first stepped into the world of Game of Thrones and Westeros as part of the writing team on the spin-off House of the Dragon during its first season. It wasn’t long before he was tapped to bring George R.R. Martin’s novellas starring Dunk and Egg starting with The Hedge Knight to life for HBO.
Interview With ‘Spider-Noir’ Showrunner Oren Uziel
Spider-Noir (2026). Photo by Aaron Epstein/Prime Spider-Noir is the new show from Sony Pictures Television for MGM+ and Prime Video. Starring Nicolas Cage as Ben Reilly, a noir-detective by day and by night is the tragic super hero The Spider. Based on the Marvel Comics series “Spider-Man Noir”, it tells a twisted tale of suspense and superheroes in a post-World War I New York where Prohibition is rampant and violence is the language of the street.
What ‘The Mandalorian and Grogu’ Can Teach Screenwriters
Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu (2026). Courtesy of Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures The Mandalorian and Grogu is a different sort of film than some might be used to making or writing. It’s cut from a different cloth of screenwriting and filmmaking, so naturally some critics haven’t quite wrapped their head around it. The same could be said of most Star Wars movies. That’s often true of most fantasy and mythological films in general.
Interview with ‘Star Wars: Maul — Shadow Lord’ Writer Matt Michnovetz
Star Wars: Maul - Shadow Lord. Courtesy of Lucasfilm Animation Star Wars: Maul — Shadow Lord is the most recent animated offering from Lucasfilm in a galaxy far, far away. Telling the story of Maul, the villain from 1999’s The Phantom Menace, bridging his time between the events of The Clone Wars television series and his brief cameo appearance in 2016’s Solo: A Star Wars Story. For more than 20 years, Lucasfilm Animation has been producing Star Wars shows.
Big Shiny Robot: Summer 2026 Geek Guide
You deserve a break from the persistent horrors of reality, looming outside your door like the Great Old Ones that Lovecraft used to write so lovingly about. This summer, sure to be a scorcher (the hottest on record … so far! they’ll no doubt say), will require plenty of delightful distractions of delight. Thankfully, there are plenty to be had as we march inexorably on toward the end (end of what?
Big Shiny Robot: Art as radical rebellion
Twenty years ago, just one year before his death, Kurt Vonnegut responded to a letter inviting him to offer his wisdom to a class of high schoolers. At 84, he regretfully declined, but insisted he wouldn’t have much to say anyway. His one bit of advice would be to practice art—any art. Vonnegut wrote about this idea throughout his life, and thus included it in this letter as one of his parting missives.
What Pixar’s ‘Hoppers’ Can Teach Screenwriters
This will contain major spoilers. Hoppers (2026). Courtesy of Disney/Pixar Pixar's latest film, Hoppers, is a return to form for the house that brought us such classics a Up, Inside Out, Turning Red and Ratatouille, among a dozen other masterpieces. Their effort from last year, Elio, was good, but full of compromises and unforced errors. Pixar’s chief creative officer Pete Docter felt compelled to remove the heart of the story for fear of allegedly sending kids to therapy.
The Northman Is A Dream For Akira Kurosawa Fans
Robert Egger's 2022 film "The Northman" is based on the Norse myth of Amleth, which was a chief inspiration for Shakespeare as he crafted "Hamlet." The story of a man killing his brother king and marrying the dead man's wife, leaving the dead man's son to find his own place in the story and exact revenge feels as old as time itself.
Big Shiny Robot: AI and the soul of storytelling
There are few things I find more thrilling than a great story well told. Whether film, novel, comic book, epic poem, painting, cave drawings, whatever the medium that is employed, well-told stories are magic.
Staying calm and steady when the Utah Legislature is wrong. Period. En...
My youngest is 10 and trans. Knowing that, perhaps readers will understand my frustration with the Utah Legislature these last few years, as they trample over my child’s health care. This session is worse than ever. In addition to HB17—further restrictions on hormone therapies for kids—HB193 would prohibit public money from supporting gender-affirming care, including public employees on government health plans.
What Emerald Fennell’s "Wuthering Heights" Can Teach Screenwriters
"Wuthering Heights" (2026). Courtesy of Warner Bros. Emerald Fennell, who won the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for 2020’s Promising Young Woman, set her sights this year on Emily Brontë’s 1847 novel Wuthering Heights as the subject of her newest film. Starring Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordie, "Wuthering Heights" is a loose adaptation of the novel. It’s an emotional film, beautifully written and crafted film for those able to divorce themselves from the source material.
The destructive forces of AI are too severe for Salt Lake City to igno...
I’m constantly outraged by the use of generative AI. As a writer whose work has been stolen to train it, I’m personally aggrieved. As someone who believes art is a way to grow and learn empathy, I’m spiritually aggrieved. As a person who cares about the environment, the sheer amount of resources the plagiarism slop machine takes aggrieves me as a rational human being. Knowing it drives kids to suicide and people to psychosis, I’m aggrieved as a caring human.
Big Shiny Robot: Best of Geek 2025
In a lot of ways, 2025 hasn’t been a great year. An unrestrained Trump presidency has seen masked secret police marching through the streets, with military forces occupying American cities, all while his drunken Secretary of “War” illegally orders crimes around the world in an effort to align the U.S.A. with a new axis of evil. It has made the need for breaths of escapism necessary.
Rian Johnson on Crafting Character First Mysteries
Rian Johnson has lately made a career of the mystery film. After his incredible work on Star Wars: The Last Jedi, the eighth installment of the blockbuster mythology of the Skywalker saga, he turned his gaze toward the saga of Benoit Blanc, gentleman sleuth, played by Daniel Craig. With 2019’s Knives Out, he created a phenomeon.
6 Movies To Watch If You Loved Nope
Jordan Peele's third outing as a director, "Nope" tells the tale of a family of Hollywood horse trainers that date back to the beginning of Hollywood. No one seems to care about their contributions, but they still go to work every day. When the patriarch of the family, Otis Haywood (Keith David), is killed mysteriously, his kids, OJ (Daniel Kaluuya) and Em (Keke Palmer) struggle to keep themselves afloat in a business that would just as soon chew them up and spit them out.
6 Movies To Watch If You Loved The Black Phone
"The Black Phone," from director Scott Derrickson and his writing partner C. Robert Cargill, is based on a short story by Joe Hill (the son of horror master Stephen King). It tells the story of a young boy named Finney (Mason Thames) who is snatched by a serial killer dubbed the Grabber (Ethan Hawke). Finney's sister, Gwen (Madeleine McGraw), is touched by dreams that might help her save her brother, but the ghosts of the other children murdered by the Grabber do their best to help, too.
'Bugonia' Sticking the Landing, and A Lesson For Screenwriters
As we’re talking about the ending and sticking the landing, there will naturally be spoilers for the ending of Bugonia in this article, proceed at your own risk. Bugonia is the latest movie from filmmaker Yorgos Lanthimos, with a screenplay from Will Tracy, based on a Korean film written by Jang Joon-hwan.
Frankenstein is one of those properties that has been twisted by the ages. These days, most people have a familiarity with it because of its ubiquity in pop culture at varying levels. The vast majority know it from the sheer overwhelming pervasiveness of imagery of the 1931 interpretation of the novel from Universal pictures starring Boris Karloff (credited as The Monster).
The Writer of 'Tron: Ares' Talks about the Need to Keep Coming up with Ideas
For more than forty years, Tron has been a part of the cultural zeitgeist, pushing the boundaries of technology in cinema, both in front of and behind the camera. The release of Tron: Ares gives us a third installment of the saga and continues the tradition of pushing those boundaries forward, asking questions about the future of technology and all of the moral and ethical implications involved. To write this third installment, producers tapped writer and producer Jesse Wigutow.
The Director of 'The Woman in Cabin 10' Talks Hitchcock and Finding Your North Star
The Woman in Cabin 10 is an adaptation of the novel by Ruth Ware. Part psychological thriller, part gaslighting horror film, it stars Keira Knightley as a burned out journalist who recently watched one of her sources drown because they spoke to her and she feels deeply responsible for it. Her colleagues try to convince her to take some time off, but she’s a workaholic and doesn’t feel like it’s possible to take time off.
Big Shiny Robot: Highlights of the fan convention experience
Though there seems to be a nerd convention going on somewhere around the country every weekend on the calendar, fall always feels like convention season to me. Fall and spring. I do a lot of conventions for my day job—(You didn't think being a dashing City Weekly columnist was all I did, did you? We can't all be so lucky as Scott Renshaw...)—I'm a full-time writer, and I do write lots of nerdy things.
'Highest 2 Lowest': A Kurosawa Remix
Many years ago, on the streets of Park City during the Sundance Film Festival, I was walking along with a film sales agent representing a documentary film I’d produced. Coming down the hill was a man in gray sweats, an electric blue ski jacket two-sizes too big, a neon green toque, and mirrored aviator sunglasses. “Here comes Jeff, I’ll introduce you,” our sales agent said.
Big Shiny Robot: The case for keeping physical media
The mass-market idea of owning a movie to watch at home is a relatively new one compared to the art of films themselves. VCRs and videotapes didn't hit the mainstream until 1980; prior to that, they were an expensive oddity. By the 1980s, rentals gave way to actually owning your own copies of movies. For collectors, laserdiscs initially were the high-quality collectible of choice for superior sound and picture quality.
How 'Honey Don’t!' Economizes Storytelling and Trusts Its Audience
There will be spoilers for Honey Don’t! (2025) in this piece. Ethan Coen and Tricia Cooke co-wrote the screenplay for Honey Don’t!, the second in their “queer B-movie trilogy” that began with last year’s hilarious and somehow wholesome Drive Away Dolls. Ethan, half of the legendary Coen Brothers team, took a break from that team up after 2018’s The Ballad of Buster Scruggs and came back to making movies with Cooke, his wife, and we’ve been blessed with these sharp, 90-minute gifts.
What 'The Fantastic Four: First Steps' Can Teach Screenwriters
There will be spoilers for Fantastic Four: First Steps (2025) in this piece. Created in 1961 by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby for Marvel Comics, the Fantastic Four have been dubbed the First Family of comics for more than sixty years.
Big Shiny Robot: What makes Superman super?
With the release of James Gunn's Superman—which Zack Snyder fans assured us would not make money at the box office, because Henry Cavill was the definitive Superman—and it performing beyond even the wildest expectations, it's worth asking who Superman really is. What makes these legacy characters—which are typically reinvented by every generation (or half a generation) for the last century—the definitive version of the character to which audiences respond?
What 'Superman' Can Teach Screenwriters or: The Importance of Being Earnest
There will be spoilers for Superman (2025) in this piece. James Gunn, writer and director of the newest film to star the Man of Steel, is also the new architect of the future of the DC cinematic universe. He had a lot riding on his shoulders with the success of this film, and the opening weekend box office didn’t disappoint. The film wasn’t without its flaws, but at the core of it was a winner.
What Alex Garland’s Screenplay for “28 Years Later” Can Teach Screenwriters
Warning: This will have spoilers for 28 Years Later. 28 Years Later, directed by Danny Boyle and written by Alex Garland, is the third film in a series that began with 2002’s 28 Days Later, written and directed by the same duo. It’s divorced enough from the previous installments by decades that it really requires no one in the audience to revisit them.
Dario Scardapane Talks Writing and Showrunning Daredevil: Born Again and How Crafting Season 1 Differs From the Second
Daredevil: Born Again is technically the fourth season of Daredevil Marvel has produced, but serves as a soft relaunch for the character since switching homes from Netflix to Disney+. The show began filming and before it was finished the writer’s strike went into effect. The executives at Marvel reassessed the show and decided to bring in a new showrunner and writer. Enter Dario Scardapane.
Geekonomics and the impact of Trump trade wars
Turmoil has engulfed the United States. The taxation of fan-favorite products, goods, and games is in dispute. Donald Trump has decided that—with no knowledge of what they are or how they work—tariffs are somehow a magical key to force other countries to pay their fair share. Of what? Who knows. For what? No idea. Tariffs are a tax on imported goods from another country, and designed to act as a deterrent on bringing in those goods.
What Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning Can Teach Screenwriters
There will be spoilers for Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning in this piece. The latest installment of the long-running Mission: Impossible film franchise, Final Reckoning, also purports to be the last installment of the series. It’s also the second part of the pair, with 2023’s Dead Reckoning acting as the first part.
Tony Gilroy On Bringing "Andor" to The End
As Star Wars "Andor"’ssecond and final season comes to an end, it stands as a monument to some of the best writing on television today. This treatise on the terrors of authoritarianism and fascism could not be more relevant, and it’s written with such an elegant eye for dialogue, juxtaposition of images, and an honest portrayal of truth that it’s impossible to ignore.
What Marvel’s 'Thunderbolts*' Can Teach Screenwriters
There will be spoilers for Thunderbolts* in this piece. Thunderbolts*, the latest offering from Marvel Studios and the Marvel Cinematic Universe, might fly under the radar. Few have had high expectations for it since it was a film headlined by B-listers and villains. Thunderbolts was never the most popular comic book series, but it was critically acclaimed when it kicked off in the ‘90s.
Tony Gilroy On Crafting the Opening of Andor’s Second Season
"Andor” has been the critical darling hit of thetelevision shows on Disney+ and though it’s a team effort, showrunner and writer Tony Gilroy deserves a lion’s share of it. His vision and unique voice has brought a political edge and prestige-style writing to a galaxy far, far away.
A sampling of geek-themed cookbooks
It's fascinating to watch or read about our favorite fictional worlds and salivate about all of the exotic flavors they might have in those distant places. It's one of those times where you feel cursed to be trapped on Earth in this time and place, unable to travel to the taverns of Dungeons & Dragons, or into all of the far-off lands of Star Wars.
Nick Castle - Director of 'The Last Starfighter' - Talks Being a Horror Icon and a Writer/Director - Script Magazine
Nick Castle has been working in Hollywood across five decades. Most would know him most recognizably as the man behind the mask of Michael Myers in the original 1978 Halloween from the legendary John Carpenter. Despite this landmark performance in the world of horror, and endless questions at conventions and appearances about Michael Myers, he thinks of himself first and foremost as a writer and director.
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