289 replies to this topic

[spynovelfan]

He can re-start his crusade any day he likes. I've kept proof of his involvement with the site - believe me, it's proof - and I am also fairly media-savvy. As he handed over the site to Ms Brayton within about an hour of me saying this here last time, I don't think he's very likely to come back. I also think far fewer people are going to be interested in hearing his or Ms Brayton's views after the film's release - judging from the music video, the Blond Cosmo Kramer Three Stooges Boris Becker Homosexual-Role-Taking Franchise-Killing Non-Brosnan is going to do absolutely fine, whichever way you want to slice figures.

I am now leaving this extremely depressing thread.

[Alvin]

I said that Brosnan was more well-known than Craig going into their respective castings and press conferences. Ordinarily the "unknown" thing might be alright, but with Craig it's a definite question mark since his looks are so unconventional. Again, why? Because you don't know how he's going to be received as an actor who can anchor a major, Hollywood action blockbuster. Will audiences respond to him? Does he have what it takes to put butts into seats? In ANY OTHER FILM I might say yes; but with Bond, it being so iconic and established and all, I have grave doubts that he'll click with audiences. Nothing will change my mind until November 17th.

Craig will click with audiences because the true marketing campaign is beginning--he will start the talk show circuit soon in America. For example, he will be on David Letterman on November 7. That's election night but I have a feeling Americans will be tuning into Letterman to see Craig rather than watch those political talking heads analyze the election results well into the late hours. I admit that I have heard people say that Craig doesn't look like Bond in those posters and trailers, and many of my classmates don't seem to care about CR. But once the true marketing campaign has begun and these people see Craig on a talk show, they'll be blown away. ONe reason why EON went with a younger actor was to appeal to young movie-goers, and that's bound to happen now.

Probably Craig's major selling point is that he has defined acting for his generation and has primarily appeared in arty films. With that alone, he can bring in a new audience (the art crowd) to CR. But he has also appeared in Road To Perdition, which proves he has the potential to anchor a major Hollywood film. He has also worked with Spielberg in Munich and, according to Craig, Spielberg himself encouraged him to take on the Bond role. So Craig has the Spielberg association surrounding him and the name "Spielberg" gives Craig a big screen presence. Then there's the media itself, which is bound to favor Craig--you have to remember that the liberal media has an open mind and will be accomodating to Craig. His popularity will soar, heck he'll be re-energizing the franchise because it was going nowhere these last four years.

[HildebrandRarity]

But, what will Gravity's Silhouette and his two fellow members of

the anti-Craig wing of Bondage

do once Craig does what you suggest, Alvin?

Will he and the other two try to take the "wing" of their S&M club to a foursome so they can deny Eon a whopping $40 dollars (US of course) from Bond 22's box office? I assume ticket prices will be $10 per head in a couple of years time, non?

LOL!

Edited by HildebrandRarity, 01 November 2006 - 11:49 PM.

[HildebrandRarity]

They're about as intolerant, agenda-driven as you can get.

One would have thought you were describing the "wing" of your tiny little club of three.

[jake speed]

I think Casino Royale will make a lot of money in Peru but bomb in Iceland. I'm willing to bet half a billion US dollars on that scenario with anyone on this forum.

The last thing Eon or anyone should do is remind the general public that Craig was in Tomb Raider. He was awful in that film, although Angelina did tend to distract one from his 'performance'.

[kneelbeforezod]

[quote name='JimmyBond' post='637674' date='1 November 2006 - 16:22']
[quote name='Brock Samson' post='637611' date='1 November 2006 - 08:24']
[quote name='Harmsway' post='637263' date='31 October 2006 - 16:47']
[quote name='CM007' post='637250' date='31 October 2006 - 15:24']
And the film ain

[kneelbeforezod]

He can re-start his crusade any day he likes. I've kept proof of his involvement with the site - believe me, it's proof - and I am also fairly media-savvy. As he handed over the site to Ms Brayton within about an hour of me saying this here last time, I don't think he's very likely to come back.

Stopping Deanna will be difficult. She has connections. You cannot merely intimidate her. You may have to kill her. Does that......discourage you?

Dinovelvet asked:

Would you care to elaborate on that?

Sure. Mario apparently held political office at one point. I know for a fact that he was an advisor and consultant to Rudy Giuliani because...well, because he told me, and because I checked up on it.

Let's be clear on one thing: I wouldn't be saying any of this had some people not figured it out already. SpyNovelFan's dogged tenacity was apparently the reason that he decided to get out of CraigNotBond, though a few others, such as JetSetWilly, had figured out parts of it from the start.

Up till the very end Mario thought that he couldn't be traced back to the site, but I believe he was in deep denial. At this point there's nothing to be gained by lying and everything to be gained by setting the record straight.

So anyway, in case some of you all don't know the full story, I'll try and tell it to you in a brief, concise manner. I knew he was sort of gun-shy about being associated with the site, and had a vague notion that it was because he was involved in the New York political scene. Bottom line: he didn't want that site either hurting his consulting business or hurting his electoral chances (still not sure whether he's currently running for any local office or not).

I mean, running CNB is not the worst thing in the world. It's not like he sent explicit emails to pages, or screwed his interns.

I had a running dialogue with him, but I never submitted a single article or piece of art to the site, though it was my intention at first. When he debuted the site I was so disgusted with the casting of Craig that I wanted to help with the site anyway that I could (within reason). Problem was, Mario's vision for the site was never the same as mine. I wanted to present some real arguments against Craig's hiring, and didn't want any of the tawrdy art and tasteless, trashy, almost tabloid-like comments and pictures that were on his site. It looked like it was being run by a couple of 15 year old boys, which was, for some bizarre reason, just the way he wanted it to look. Hence, I never got involved.

At the very end of his involvement with CNB, two things happened:

#1 Deanna Brayton did a radio interview where she presented herself as a Bond fan, but exposed herself as having almost no pre-Brosnan Bond knowledge at all, and it infuriated me, and I told Mario that. That began to finally turn me against CNB. She in turn fired off a nasty email to Mario telling him to have me 'shut the hell up' about her on these forums. That's quite ironic, because I've had a few uninformed mutants around here alleging that I work, or worked, for CNB, which was never the case.

#2 When he was trying to exit the whole thing and give it to Deanna, he did offer it to me first, but I turned it down (remember, I had experience running 007forever.com for 5 years, and got it featured, for all the right reasons, in Yahoo Internet Life, Entertainment Weekly, etc..), as the damage that had been done in CNB's name was too great. I had wanted the site to be professional and respectful...the ASSOCIATED PRESS of anti-Craig sites, where disillusioned fans could get together and talk. Like I said, by the time it all went down, he'd run the site and the name into the ground. It was radioactive, and I wasn't about to touch it. But most importantly, he asked me to lie for him...to tell other people who might come asking that the Mario Bruno who was running that site was located in California. Spoken like a true politician: getting caught, and then trying to leave someone else holding the bag.

This doesn't mean that I wished ill upon him. But my feeling was that 'if you do the crime, you got to do the time'. It was his drama, he needed to act in it. As John Hammond once said, "I don't blame people for their mistakes, but I do expect them to pay for them". He spent months ridiculing Craig's looks, with some of the meanest comments and pictures I've seen since the Democrats attacked Linda Tripp's looks back in 1998, and now, for him to expect me to just bail him out and help him suffer none of the consequences, was unrealistic and unfair. Plus, there was nothing I could do to help him anyway. I wasn't going to tell more lies to help him get out of the ones he'd already told (interestingly, when I first contacted him about helping with CNB, he lied to me and told me he wasn't Ali Kerim Bey on the MI6 forum, when in reality he was), ***PLUS*** I don't tell lies. Now that doesnt' mean I offer the truth to those who have no need or right to it. For a while I didn't answer Jet Set Willy's direction questions about Mario/AKB, but eventually I did. And even though JSW and I got off to a rough start over at the MI6 forums, I never, ever lied to JSW. That's just something I won't do, and Mario seriously overestimated my anti-Craig prejudice, thinking I would just do whatever he asked of me because I was against Craig.

And finally, if Deanna is still monitoring my comments....babe, you don't have the right to criticize the Bond fans, or even Craig. I may not like Daniel Craig (remains to be seen), but when you start attacking the fans or treating them with contempt, or showing off your ignorance of Bond history, you're attacking family, bitch, and family takes up for one another.

Absolutely astonishing that this is all about the casting of an actor in a bit of escapist entertainment. A bit embarrassing in fact.

[HildebrandRarity]

he debuted the site to present .. the tawrdy art and tasteless, trashy, almost tabloid-like comments and pictures that were on...

She in turn fired off a nasty email to (*****) telling him to have me 'shut the hell up' about her on these forums.

he asked me to lie for him...

He spent months ridiculing Craig's looks, with some of the meanest comments and pictures I've seen

...he lied to me ...

that doesnt' mean I offer the truth to those who have no need or right to it.

And finally, if Donkey is still monitoring my comments....babe, ...when you start attacking the fans or treating them with contempt, or showing off your ignorance of Bond history, you're attacking family, bitch

Sweet.

There's nothing funnier than a trio of nobodys imploding in on their own grotesque bile. You 'people' deserve each other.

Edited by HildebrandRarity, 02 November 2006 - 01:04 AM.

[Agent Spriggan Ominae]

he debuted the site to present .. the tawrdy art and tasteless, trashy, almost tabloid-like comments and pictures that were on...

She in turn fired off a nasty email to (*****) telling him to have me 'shut the hell up' about her on these forums.

he asked me to lie for him...

He spent months ridiculing Craig's looks, with some of the meanest comments and pictures I've seen

...he lied to me ...

that doesnt' mean I offer the truth to those who have no need or right to it.

And finally, if Donkey is still monitoring my comments....babe, ...when you start attacking the fans or treating them with contempt, or showing off your ignorance of Bond history, you're attacking family, bitch

Sweet.

There's nothing funnier than a trio of nobodys imploding in on their own grotesque bile. You 'people' deserve each other.

Oh come on! GS may be opinionated but he ain't no CNB troll.

[dinovelvet]

Thanks for the info, Grav, I knew most of the details but this helped fill in some of the gaps. Although, going back to your original comment, why is it that we'll be hearing more from/about Mario after November 7?

[kneelbeforezod]

Absolutely astonishing that this is all about the casting of an actor in a bit of escapist entertainment. A bit embarrassing in fact.

What I find even more astonishing is that you chose to quote 200 lines of text...only to add 2 of your own.

You're right, my bad... scrolling through it first time round was painful enough.

[kneelbeforezod]

You're right, my bad... scrolling through it first time round was painful enough.

Admit it: you popped a bag of popcorn, opened up a cold beer, and sat down and read all that crap. Every bit of it was fascinating.

I got halfway; I'll print the second half and save it for a long haul flight

[Harmsway]

Admit it: you popped a bag of popcorn, opened up a cold beer, and sat down and read all that crap. Every bit of it was fascinating.

I did. Frivolous though it be, the overblown drama over CNB is absolutely intriguing. Plus, I rather liked his end comment in that epic post.

G.S. and I don't see eye-to-eye about a great many things, but he's not unintelligent. I enjoy the anti-Craigitude he brings to the table. Leads to some interesting discussion (let's face it - only Craig love around these parts wouldn't be particularly interesting).

[Agent Spriggan Ominae]

Oh come on! GS may be opinionated but he ain't no CNB troll.

I've been quite honest and upfront about my assocation with CNB. In fact, I actually had an anti-Craig, anti-Casino Royale blog that I had begun back in early January, even pre-dating CNB.com, but I never published it, and just let the whole thing go. In the end, as much as I did not want Craig, it wasn't worth the effort, as Mario soon found out.

And, besides, I didn't think the blog or CNB were really that necessary. If people don't like Craig or what the movie stands for, they just won't go to see it, and they won't recommend it to their friends either. So it seemed to me like a waste of time and resources. I prefer to discuss the film here on these forums instead.

Which is why I respect your opinion. You're not the troll that some of the more fantical Pro-Craigers have branded you. That said IMO you are underestimating Casino Royale. And on the flip side I also feel that there are a number of Pro-Craigers really overestimating it. Here's hoping that the film and Craig end up suprising you in a good way.

[jaguar007]

Even GS occationaly will let something slip that will lead one to believe that he may actually be warming up to Craig a little bit.

[AgentPB]

This discusion is nuts! I kept thinking he was talking about CBN when he typed CNB. Got me really confused. As soon as this movie comes out i'm going to read every single spoiler page just to see how ridicoulous you guys get!

[jaguar007]

The world of james Bond fans can make its own Soap Oprea. Who needs Desperat Housewifes, We got Desperate Bond Fans!!

[Skudor]

I never realised that there was so much drama in the world of CnB. It's almost worthy of a movie script. Almost.

[Loomis]

I enjoy the anti-Craigitude (Gravity's Silhouette) brings to the table.

Same here (and I'm about as pro-Craig as they come). For me, the Gravmeister is the intelligent (and also - and this seems to make him almost unique among "the haters" - civil) voice of Craig/CR scepticism, and I enjoy his contributions to this site.

Grav, I hope you've changed your mind about boycotting CR during its theatrical run, because I'm looking forward to discussing it with you soon. Who knows? We may even have similar views on it.

[Harmsway]

I enjoy the anti-Craigitude (Gravity's Silhouette) brings to the table.

Same here (and I'm about as pro-Craig as they come). For me, the Gravmeister is the intelligent (and also - and this seems to make him almost unique among "the haters" - civil) voice of Craig/CR scepticism, and I enjoy his contributions to this site.

Exactly. Without distinct (and sometimes radically distinct) opinions, this board wouldn't be any fun. It's the arguments that make forums what they are.

[Publius]

It's the arguments that make forums what they are.

Speaking of which, where the hell is Dr. Noah?

[JimmyBond]

I had suspicions that he's actually HildebrandRarity. One did appear as the other was banned.

[triviachamp]

I had suspicions that he's actually HildebrandRarity. One did appear as the other was banned.

He was banned? No wonder he hasn't posted in a while. Ah here it is: http://debrief.comma...p...st&p=629713

But HildebrandRarity started posting back in late September...

Edited by triviachamp, 02 November 2006 - 05:03 AM.

[Auric64]

I had suspicions that he's actually HildebrandRarity. One did appear as the other was banned.

He was banned? No wonder he hasn't posted in a while. Ah here it is: http://debrief.comma...p...st&p=629713

But HildebrandRarity started posting back in late September...

Seriously, has Dr. Noah been banned? And if so, for what reason?

I used to enjoy my spats with him, (though he did drive me round the bend with some of his comments, - and no doubt I did the same to him) but I was never hurt or upset by any critisisms he made of me, as, at the end of the day, we all have opinions and not everyone is going to agree with them.

Having said that, he did sometimes step over the mark. At one point he did libel someone here by stating he thought they were racist because they didn`t agree with Jeffrey Wright`s casting, (no, it wasn`t me - although I did say on here that I too did not agree with it) and I remember having a go at Dr. Noah, for having said that.

Every time I mentioned it in a post, he never responded, so I`d like to think he KNEW he had stepped over the mark, and was just too embarassed to have to apologise.

I have to say, I have much enjoyed this particular thread, especially Grav`s involvement with Mario, etc. etc. and in no way have I found it, (unlike others) to be a depressing read.

Best

Andy

Edited by Auric64, 02 November 2006 - 06:25 AM.

[Jim]

Seriously, has Dr. Noah been banned? And if so, for what reason?

Not banned; just moderated. Consistent breaches of the forum rules.

Dans ce pay-ci, il est bon de tuer de temps en temps un amiral pour encourager les autres.


Does turning this thread from the unnuterably tedious "yes it will" / "no it won't" into a heartrending read about the success of a divide and conquer tactic make it any better, I wonder? Still, thank you Michael for your candour. What you have written is noted. And uncharacteristically interesting.

Although

he lied to me and told me he wasn't Ali Kerim Bey on the MI6 forum, when in reality he was), ***PLUS*** I don't tell lies. Now that doesnt' mean I offer the truth to those who have no need or right to it. For a while I didn't answer Jet Set Willy's direction questions about Mario/AKB, but eventually I did. And even though JSW and I got off to a rough start over at the MI6 forums, I never, ever lied to JSW.

...does appear just a tadge insular.

[triviachamp]

Not banned; just moderated. Consistent breaches of the forum rules.

And the difference is?

[JimmyBond]

I assume one means he's allowed back after a certain period of time?

At the Star Trek board I post at, that's called perma-banned.

[Jim]

Not banned; just moderated. Consistent breaches of the forum rules.

And the difference is?

Do you want to find out for yourself...? This can be arranged...

...

Banned is inability to post at all.

Moderated is ability to post but with moderator preview. In other words, editorial discretion. In other other words exactly the sort of thing that happens with newspapers, magazines and the like.

Oddly enough, he/she/it doesn't seem to have taken to it.

[triviachamp]

Banned is inability to post at all.

Moderated is ability to post but with moderator preview. In other words, editorial discretion. In other other words exactly the sort of thing that happens with newspapers, magazines and the like.

Oddly enough, he/she/it doesn't seem to have taken to it.

Interesting...

[dee-bee-five]

Okay, you've got to be a young person. I'd put your age around 14 or 15. Why? Because only a young, innocent person such as yourself could believe the liberal media is 'open-minded'. They're about as intolerant, agenda-driven as you can get.

Oh, dear, not that old chesnut again. The last refuge of a bigot. And I'm in my early 40s, fyi.

Edited by dee-bee-five, 02 November 2006 - 07:57 AM.