Where have all the years gone.  First let us start off by thanking Jules for her amazing artwork that she does for us here at RPAU.  Thank you isn’t enough Jules because I know how much time and effort must be involved, but I’m sure all will agree that the end result is always beyond words.  I’d also like to thank Michelle without whom RPAU wouldn’t still be here and also Vertigo, Suze and Jules for putting up with my constant barrage of emails and what not and doing what they do here over the years. Sometimes I’m sure they laugh when they see them and sometimes I’m sure they just hit “delete” or they should lol.  Anyway, this started out as a little bit of fun, helping to promote Rob in Australia.  Michelle has been here from day 1, Vertigo has been commenting since then too, I happened along thanks to the How To Be premiere when Cilla, the original site owner, asked me to help out in about February 2009 and well – for the past 7 years Rob has kept us busy busy busy.  I thought today would be a good time to thank you all for being here and supporting Rob and reflect on what has been achieved thus far.

A few of you may recall that Robert Pattinson Australia originally started as a livejournal on 4 November 2008, it didn’t morph into a website until 26 January 2009.  Michelle and I took over the site in about May 2009 and decided that it would focus solely on Rob’s career.  It’s been an amazing experience – a decision that we haven’t regretted, a lot of hard work and equally a lot of fun.  We’ve had our ups and downs, but at the end of the day, this is a labour of love.  We’re here to promote Rob any way we can and to ensure that Rob’s fans are kept up to date with all his career news.  So in the words of Rob on stage at the State Theatre in 2011 “let’s ava look atchya”:

2008/2009

Bringing “How To Be” to fans for the only cinema screening in Australia on 28 March 2009. This was a monumental effort from RPAU’s original owner Cilla and the reason I became involved with RPAU.  It’s also how I met Michelle and Vertigo.  We had a great amount of help from Justin Kelly (Producer of HTB) and without him, it probably would not have been possible. I kept in contact with him over the years and last I heard he was doing something completely different to producing. I remember the cast (without Rob who was filming New Moon) did a personal intro for the screening – it’s a shame that was never uploaded to the site.

Also during that year, Alisah Arnah reached out to us as she wanted to set the record straight about her opinion of Rob that was misinterpreted from an interview given by Oliver Irving.

2009

We lobbied Kojo Pictures for 12 months to convince them to do a limited release of Little Ashes in cinemas rather than just straight to DVD.  I spoke to the Ritz Cinema Randwick  and The Ritz came to the party and agreed to hold a screening on 9 December 2009. I’m also happy to say that Little Ashes did eventually get limited release around Australia in 2009/2010.  Coincidentally the Australian poster was done by Jeremy Saunders who did the artwork for The Rover.

2010

We had threatened that we would seek revenge for Rob if Daniel Cudmore ever made it to our shores and well – we don’t mince our words – so Vertigo and I were true to our words as Daniel Cudmore found out.

 

2011

20thCenturyFoxAustralia brought Rob out for the Australian premiere of Water for Elephants in May 2011. Rob was only here for about 34 hours, bless him for being that kind of guy, and it was the first time we saw him in the flesh and his first trip to Oz.  I will never forget the moment his foot stepped out of that car.  Water For Elephants hit No. 1 at the Australian Box office.

The Powerhouse Musuem also hosted a Harry Potter Exhibition.  Remember how excited Vertigo was when Cedric’s robes officially landed in Australia. That was nothing compared to how excited it was for us to sit in on a press conference and meet the Weasley Twins (aka Oliver and James Phelps and boy did they grow up good).  To top that off we then had a guided tour from the curator himself before the exhibition officially opened.  Here’s a little reminder and a vid that Vertigo put together for us back then

 

2012

The London Film Review asked if we were interested in writing an article for them about Rob and his career – how could we say no.  It was exciting to actually be able to put into words on another site what we’ve been saying here for years.  Unfortunately the post is no longer available, but I did keep a copy of it here.

Then we got the news that Rob was again coming to Sydney for the Breaking Dawn Pt 2 Fan Event in October. This was the first time we spoke to Rob up close.  What an amazing day.  Meeting and talking to Rob was a dream come true and we shared this with some of you too.

I even had Rob personally sign a Breaking Dawn poster for us to giveaway.

2013

We worked closely with Dior in Sydney in the lead up to the release of DiorRob in Australia on 18 November 2013 and they put together an A5 promo poster that was available with purchases of Dior Homme in store.  This supported exactly what RPAU is all about and that’s promoting Rob’s career.  We were fortunate to be invited to the special presentation held at Dior’s Sydney offices.  I wish Dior would unleash that video they have that is an introduction to Rob.  Hopefully one day.  We all know that Rob did a photoshoot with Peter Lindbergh earlier this year and when I asked Dior in Sydney about it, they just said that no promo with Rob was scheduled for 2015 and they would let us know when the next promo happens.  We can’t wait so stay tuned.

We took some time out of promoting Rob, to help Nick Osborne promote his novels.  For those who need reminding, Nick was one of the producers of “Remember Me”. They were his labour of love and it took a few years but 2015 finally saw the third and final instalment of his trilogy.

 

2014

2014 was by far our most amazing year.   In January, we thought it would be fun to go and hear David Michod speak at FlickerLab because maybe he might happen to mention The Rover.  Well, unbeknownst to us, it would be the start of an incredibly amazing relationship.

Then we heard that Benedict Cumberbatch would be doing a special intimate event for Oz Comic-con in Sydney in May.  What better way to find out what we could may be happening with LCOZ.  It was funny to see us in amongst all the Sherlock Holmes and Star Trek fans.  Benedict is scary, but lovely at the same time.

Then we found out that The Rover would have it’s Australian premiere at the Sydney Film Festival in June.  The Rover promo in Sydney was just out of this world.  We were invited to the press screening and the Sydney Press Conference.  Both Vertigo and myself were completely shellshocked after seeing the screening, but that was nothing compared to how we felt sitting at the official press conference.  I’m pretty sure half of Sydney heard my reaction when I found out we were also invited onto the media red carpet the next night for the premiere. All our interviews can be found on the sidebar of the site.  I am still pinching myself.  I think the video that Vertigo put together for my birthday last year sets the mood perfectly on how it all went down.  And it was great to see and spend time with Rob fans who had commented on the site, tweeted or spoken to us over the years.  So wonderful to put faces to names.

2015

January saw us back on the red carpet at the AACTA Awards where we spoke with David again and talked The Rover.  We also had the opportunity to speak with Susan Prior on the red carpet and were invited into the media room during the ceremony where we filmed Susan Prior talking about Rob.  By the way Rob was ROBBED

In August we were fortunate enough to attend one of the media screenings for Life so that I could do a review of the film.

I don’t know if we will get Rob on our shores in 2016, it would be great if one of the 2016 releases brings him here, but even if it doesn’t, we will be here promoting Queen of the Desert, The Childhood of a Leader and undoubtedly Lost City of Z which wrapped the other day and any other film or project Rob has lined up for release next year.

Let me add that as great as the opportunities are for us, the incentive is for us to bring to Rob’s fans news that ordinarily may not be tailored to what we want to know. Here’s hoping to many many more years of bringing you Rob because without all of you all the magic moments that happened above would not have been possible and for that we thank you.