Starwalker goes offline: Jonathan Nolan’s scam ends
Starwalker is real, it’s happening and the winners are going into space. Best to make your peace with those facts now.
-Jonathan Nolan, Executive Producer of Starwalker
The series would revolve around thinning out contestants with the ultimate prize being a trip into space for two winners. To say development of the show was dogged with controversy is an understatement.
Practically every claim made by executive producer Jonathan Nolan about Starwalker has turned out to be false. Then there’s the fact that people have been steadily disassociating themselves with the show since it was originally announced.
As Starwalker sat in limbo amidst promises of a new executive production lineup and partnership, it seems that finally the show has been canned.
The Starwalker website was pulled sometime in the last 48 hours and Jonathan Nolan has gone into hiding.
The SMH news report does a pretty good job of summarising the current situation, watch the video below:
Interesting SMH claim that Nolan has gone into hiding yet on Nolan’s blog ‘Inherited Tigers‘ the last entry is dated just this Saturday 10th of April at 7:34pm. It is unknown whether Nolan has since gone into hiding or is publishing on the run.
Sidenote: If anyone can explain to me the point of Nolan’s blog I’m all ears.
Out of all the controversy that has surrounded Nolan and Starwalker perhaps the most interesting has been that of the treatment of ex-associate producer Robert Brand.
Brand has detailed his experience on ‘Echoes of Apollo‘. In a nutshell he was hired by Nolan as an associate producer of Starwalker and is owed for four weeks of work plus a two hundred thousand lump sum due to cancellation of the show.
Brand’s account reads like a right holy mess of the show and one can only wonder just what was going through Nolan’s mind during this entire ordeal. I’ve maintained from the start that Starwalker was a hoax so news of the show shutting down comes as no surprise.
What does intrigue me is how it went on for so long, how Nolan kept telling people the show would press on and what happened to all the SMS entry money?
At $10 an entry, an undisclosed amount of entrants and no geographical criteria to enter, one can only wonder if a small fortune was made. Doesn’t seem any reason to permanently trash your reputation and credibility over though.
I’d love to sit down and just have an honest and open chat to Nolan about just what the hell Starwalker was about. I really can’t see an end game here or exit strategy; it’s like some snowball that just kept continuing to spiral out of control.
April 13th, 2010 at 4:03 am Turbulent Priest(Quote)
Jonathan Nolan’s blog is designed to support his “comic” venture. His previous blog (Finchey Central) got too much attention after he started hawking his 9/11 conspiracy theory book using multiple profiles etc. You’ll also discover his tragic effort, “the Budgie” crime-fighting animated film.
The SMH article ends on a note of it having possibly been an attempt to remake Space cadets, but how likely is that? “Tricking” Robert Brand into quitting his job, moving his family and nearly financially ruining him. Where were the cameras during all of this? If this was really a hoax for a reality TV show, this would have been key character-establishment material! TV Gold! Not. Also highly illegal and unethical to put unsuspecting families through the wringer like that. Robert Brand would have been in on it, if it were just a copycat of Space Cadets, but the fact is it wasn’t, and Robert Brand is just a victim of Nolan.
The whole show was a scam from the start. There was no “exit strategy” other than palming it off to some mysterious, non-existant “backers from Dubai” so that they would be responsible for all debts, and of course they would disappear into the nothingness from which they came. Nolan is narcisistic enough to believe he could carry this off, and the rats started desserting as soon as they could read the writing on the wall. Nolan and Smith probably raced each other to see who would be left holding the bag. Obviously Nolan lost.
Nolan was delusional enough to think he could intimidate zGeek into surrendering, if he bludgeoned them enough with threats and cost them enough in court, and still lost. He really expected the courts of Australia to swallow the tripe he was spreading about fictional Russian backers, and expected that people would swallow the same line yet again with Starwalker. He got imaginitive this time, and changed it to mysterious backers from Dubai halfway through the piece when people really started to challenge his claims.
This is the result of a “wannabe” with a severe narcisistic personality disorder and an unhealthy desire to intimidate anyone he couldn’t con into believing his lies.
More simply put, he is an overconfident liar and a thug.
April 13th, 2010 at 8:24 am Robert Brand(Quote)
Hi all. I really wished that I had thought to search on “Jonathan Nolan Lawyer”. i would not have touched the show with a barge pole.
I warned him that if he hurt my family by this being a hoax then he would regret it. He is regretting it now. After I signed the contract and before I started, the doubts started. No office yet, I started to learn the prices that networks paid for shows and I started to understand that there were others warning people.
I spent my 4 weeks doing honest work as it was really important to me to do the right thing, but I was looking for the exit strategy and being ethical. I threatened that if he did not pay me for my first two weeks work exactly within 2 weeks as agreed, I would resign. He cancelled the show the night before creating a situation that saw him owe me a year’s pay according to the contract.
I think that he thought (and I could be wrong) that he could sell this to the networks and use the money to make the show, but they never took the bait leaving him no choice but to cancel. he currently owes over $1M to people he contracted.
He lied about the tickets on Soyuz and he lied about the financiers:
http://echoesofapollo.com/2010/04/04/starwalker-show-the-international-scam/
Stay tuned as there is much more on the way.
April 13th, 2010 at 1:35 pm ozsoapbox(Quote)
@Turbulent Priest
I noticed off Nolan’s blog that he links to a comic ‘Harry Lime‘ who copyright is attributed to a ‘Jonathan P. Nolan’. I’m assuming this is one and the same Starwalker Jonathan Nolan.
The screenshots are quite amusing, he appears to use the same software platform that he makes/made his radio movies from too. Only this time they are screen grabs instead of video.
Given that Starwalker was announced late last year, and Dubai has been in financial crisis mode now for at least eighteen months. I can’t believe Nolan thought this would work.
Business’ in Dubai are struggling to keep the country afloat, who’s got the leisure money to buy reality tv shows? I somehow don’t think Al Jazeera would be getting on board.
Well it’s been quite entertaining… I for one can’t wait to see what his next project is!
@Robert Brand
Hey Robert, thanks for stopping by.
I remember reading (can’t remember if it was Facebook or the Apollo site) that you currently didn’t have enough money to pursuit the matter. If you’re owed $200,000 + 4 weeks pay that’s at least $750,000 owing to other creditors.
Surely this it isn’t as simple as just going into hiding when you owe so many people this much money?
What you mean there’s more to Nolan and Starwalker?! Do tell!
April 13th, 2010 at 11:34 pm Turbulent Priest(Quote)
@OzSoapbox
Harry Lime was an old radio serial, which involved Orson Wells at one point. Nolan didn’t come up with this idea either
Same as he ripped off Last Man On Earth, and Philip K. Dick’s material as well.
There is nothing original about our Mr Nolan
April 15th, 2010 at 7:20 pm Turbulent Priest(Quote)
Well, Mr Nolan is still about and seems to me as delusional and paranoid as ever, having posted more drivel on his Inherited Tigers page just yesterday.
That’s handy as it will make him easier to track down for Mr Brand
Looking at how things have gone, I wonder what has happened to Greg Smith? He seems to have disappeared.
Meanwhile Jonathan must be pondering what strategy to adopt next. He has no credibility, his reputation is not even sufficient to provide material to describe as “tatters”, and it seems he is in debt to the tune of $1,000,000. I would guess he’s looking around to find somebody to blame and then take them to court repeatedly.
I keep coming back to re-examine motive. Was this a scam from the start, or was there intent to create the show and sell it onwards?
PROs:Mr Nolan has had some dealings in the past, trying to sell stock footage the Channel 7 (apparently) with little success, he has appeared on 7 Sunrise and Today Tonight as an “Industry Expert” touting his Hottest On TV website and once for his Bank Beaters enterprise. His track record on those attempts isn’t overly impressive, but he did have some connections. Sweet Cyanide and Fortunate Sons listed on his resume.
CONs: His web presence on his site and forums, his history as a disbarred lawyer, public knowledge of the quality of his work such as Fortunate Sons & Sweet Cyanide. Lying about Prof Hawking, lying about Polka-Dot PR, fake documentation from the space vehicle providers, fake profiles created to tout his book on 9/11, his track record for listing vapourware shows such as Nematoma, some roadtrip/bike thing, and a dozen other little things that just make it all pretty unlikely. Then finally, look at the calibre of his “partners”… Hmmmm…..
My conclusion: I honestly don’t think that anyone could be so delusional that they could think that they could con Prof Stephen Hawking into thinking a small-time Australian indie film producer could launch men into space. I don’t think that there was any intent to run a Space Cadets style scam, since Prof Hawking would not be a party to that. I think that this was purely a scam from the start.
April 16th, 2010 at 3:54 am ozsoapbox(Quote)
Ugh, I tried to read the post and couldn’t get past the first few lines. For someone involved in writing comic books I certainly hope Nolan authors more readable material.
If true then the only part I don’t understand is how did Nolan think he was going to pull it off? Like I mentioned in the post, what was the exit strategy? What benefit other then a financial one was Nolan hoping to get out of this and in his head how did he see this panning out?
I’d love to hear the answers to those questions.
April 16th, 2010 at 3:13 pm Turbulent Priest(Quote)
I believe this guy’s ego is large enough to think he could con Prof Hawking with a Space Scam.
I also believe his exit strategy was simply to blame it on either “the Russians” or his “mysterious backers from Dubai”.
He has successfuly avoided detection previously as he has always remained “below the radar”, such as his scam for selling “Producer Credits” on eBay. He’s used to running nickel and dime scams, and this is bigger than anything he’s ever tried before.
The beauty of having foreigners to blame for this operation is that most of us can’t google in Russian or Arabic, so we would be hard-pressed to find the truth and disprove his lies.
April 27th, 2010 at 10:03 pm Steel Hydra(Quote)
Well, I am not surprised. If you check out the website for pisces all media (www.piscesallmedia.com) and read what he wrote about his products (although he seems to have tried to have written it as though it was written by a neutral third party) and you will see just how deluded, or just how much of a con this man is.
I have known people who used to work with Nolan and Smith for a brief time on one of their projects (as actors I think), and they told me that the man sounded like a con, and apparently Greg Smith was in trouble with the law at some point.
November 15th, 2010 at 4:02 pm Old friend(Quote)
The sad thing here is that I think Jon believed it to be true. It was just that the backers, like his friends, are imaginary. Which is why he gets so upset that no one else can see the pink elephant.
April 11th, 2011 at 9:51 pm interested(Quote)
I you look at Robert Brands feedback on ebay it seems he has taken alot of people for a ride here on planet earth.
Check robertb52
April 12th, 2011 at 1:01 pm ozsoapbox(Quote)
The feedback for that account seems to be hit and miss for sure.
How do you know it’s the same Robert Brand as commenting here though?
April 14th, 2011 at 12:45 pm interested(Quote)
If you check his account history he was called robertbrand before robertb52. It is definately the same guy, he aways claims to be the victim. I wouldn’t be suprised if he was in on the scam.
The people on ebay claim he never reponded to them and his phone is now disconnected. His LinkedIn looks impresive but does not tell you about his failures.
April 15th, 2011 at 11:44 am ozsoapbox(Quote)
Fair enough.
I obviously can’t confirm either way so I’ll leave it up to him to defend the claim if he wants to.
June 1st, 2011 at 3:40 pm also interested(Quote)
What are the chances that the bad ebay feedback is an attempt by Mr. Nolan to discredit Robert Brand?
It would actually be quite easy to have bid on or to have had friends bid on Mr. Brand’s ebay items & then claim not to have recieved them when in fact they had recieved them.
June 6th, 2011 at 12:16 pm Turbulent Priest(Quote)
The posts about the eBay stuff do sound a lot like the stuff posted on RiotACT by Nolan, don’t they? He must have thought people had forgotten about these articles. Sounds like somebody trying to rewrite history, doesn’t it?
I wonder where else he’s posting stuff to discredit his detractors?
June 6th, 2011 at 12:23 pm Turbulent Priest(Quote)
JUST IN – Google “Jonathan Nolan IMFI” and look for a guest speaker’s list at a conference in China. Look who’s now claiming to be a Doctor from an Egyptian company and offered to co-chair the meeting!
I know that you can buy doctorates online for $177 AUST now, but seriously?
I’d hate to be the chair when his “credentials” get exposed. LOL!!!
June 6th, 2011 at 12:51 pm ozsoapbox(Quote)
Any chance of a direct link? I had a glance but didn’t see anything China related.
I did however note that apparently Jonathan Nolan’s latest description of himself is that he’s a
Lol, is this definitely and positively the same Jonathan Nolan of Starwalker fame?
June 9th, 2011 at 1:46 pm Slots(Quote)
Interesting that this has come up now.
I can’t vouch for Robert on the Ebay thing either. But Nolan and his compatriates have in the past made very clumsy attempts at smearing people who try to expose them for what they are.
But even if Robert’s reputation doesn’t end up being entirely stellar, his claims were just one of many against Nolan. And it also doesn’t affect the multitude of other lies told by Nolan and exposed by others.
And yes, the Jonathan Nolan of IMFI is the same Jonathan Nolan. He is currently trying to pass himself off as a carbon trading “expert”, despite having no experience or qualifications in the field.
This may explain the renewed attack on Robert. Nolan is trying to reinvent himself, and hoping to discredit past accusations against him. Given the wealth of evidence against him now out there, I wish him luck with that
June 10th, 2011 at 11:26 pm ozsoapbox(Quote)
if you’re trying to discredit someone, surely there’s a better way to do it than publishing negative feedback on eBay?
June 15th, 2011 at 7:30 pm Turbulent Priest(Quote)
http://www.lcesummit.com/part_list_5.asp?id=part_5
It’s is easy to see that IMFI and Flying Tiger Comics are one and the same here:
https://www.sitelock.com/verify.php?site=flyingtigercomics.com
June 24th, 2011 at 7:17 am Turbulent Priest(Quote)
Has anyone else noticed that all the stuff critical of Nolan is suddenly dropping off the list in Google? I suspect that something is going on with a bit of PR work. Perhaps slots is right and this is the start of Nolan trying to reinvent himself.
September 14th, 2011 at 1:42 pm Turbulent Priest(Quote)
It has been interesting to see that Jonathan Peter Nolan is again claiming to be a “retired” barrister, a Liberal Party insider, a former “Intel” operative involved in the aftermath of 9/11 and a former US serviceman. These claims are interspersed with racist, sexist and ridiculous claims on his “bamftiger” twitter account.
It has been fascinating to read his usual tirade of claims that anyone he doesn’t like is a cheating Fabian Lesbian/Gay Sociopath using Alinsky tactics or “astroturfing”. Wow. He read a book on spin-doctoring. Whoop-dee freaking do.
I gather from some of the comments posted that his businesses are failing – his IMFI blog contains nothing but political character assassination guff and his woeful Flying Tiger Comics site is showing clear signs of impending failure.
I spoke with friends about Nolan’s desire to be seen as a 9/11 aftermath hero, his unsubtle hints that he saw action in Yugoslavia that still scars him to this day and the call out to his “homies” at the 4/457th and showed them the posts and the reaction of each of them was one of pure disgust.
To claim to be one of the heroes involved with sorting out the chaos of 9/11 just goes to show how vile and low this reptile is. He wasn’t in the US at the time of the attacks. He was in Darwin working towards getting himself disbarred.
February 6th, 2012 at 1:35 pm Hmmm(Quote)
An associate had recent contact with a person saying he was Jonathan Nolan a consultant to the Carbon Trading Industry and also a UN Envoy.
Nolans correspondence said he was from this company: http://www.sanctuaryconsultancy.com/index.html
Does anyone know if this is the same Jonathan Nolan?