Screen Auckland was delighted to see Rob Tapert’s investiture in May as an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit.
The citation ‘For services to the film and television industries’ simply doesn’t do justice to Rob’s immense contribution across more than 25 years. Rob was a pioneer and became a titan of the screen industry in this country.
His tenacity and passion have played a massive part in screen production becoming the billion-dollar revenue earner for Auckland it is today – an industry which employs thousands of skilled people in quality jobs, and supports more than 1600 businesses.
Many of our region’s most talented screen professionals owe much of their career development to Rob’s loyalty and encouragement through long-running projects such as Hercules and Xena.
His trust in the skills of Auckland’s crews and talent, visual effects and prop making companies, and his love and use of our region’s unique locations, all contributed significantly to the region’s growing reputation among major production studios.
Auckland has a lot to thank Rob for, including selecting the region as the main base for his world-making vision that has been brought to life in productions as diverse as Ash vs Evil Dead, Xena: Warrior Princess, and Spartacus, and generated a spend of nearly a billion dollars in New Zealand.
Along with last year’s fabulous live act Pleasuredome The Musical, Rob’s projects create exportable IP and jobs for Aucklanders.
The world is taking notice of our region’s high-quality screen production industry and increasingly coming here to film their projects. Rob Tapert has been rightly recognised for his outstanding contribution.