LAPLACE — St. John the Baptist Parish is gearing up for a red carpet premier.

Guests are welcome to walk the carpet in LaPlace for the premier of one of the newest AMC television series, “Into the Badlands.”

St. John Center Film Coordinator Jo Banner said the show follows a warrior named Sunny.

“He is traveling through this futile type of landscape, and he has to fight his way through different bands of fighters,” Banner said. “It’s going to be premiered Sunday after an episode of ‘The Walking Dead.’”

The LaPlace party is planned from 7 to 10 p.m. Sunday at the St. John Center, 2900 U.S. 51 in LaPlace.

“We are going to start off with a workshop,” Banner said. “We have a panel of guests who are all in the film industry. I’m going to ask them some questions, and they are going to answer. Hopefully, if we have time, they can take some questions from the audience. Then we are going show an episode of ‘Walking Dead,’ then the ‘Into the Badlands’ premier.”

Even though it’s a red carpet event, the attire is business casual.

“We are going to have a photographer there,” Banner said.

“We have a step and repeat, it’s a background with different logos things like St. John Parish and the Tourism Board. Anyone who attends can take a picture in front of that.”

The event has room for 200 people to attend and 176 had signed up by Wednesday afternoon.

The television series, which took five months to create six episodes, was completely shot locally.

A set was built at the St. John Center, and the Evergreen Plantation and Second Ward School in Edgard were also used.

Banner feels having local areas used in a television show could be good for the area.

“We’ll get a lot more exposure, especially Evergreen Planation,” Banner said. “We will probably see an increase in tourism of people who want to visit the places the show was shot. That’s what we’ve seen with the show the ‘Walking Dead,’ so we are hoping to get that same type of increase in visitors to see locations.”

Banner explains other TV shows and movies have been shot in the area, but didn’t showcase the different locations as much as Into the Badlands.

“This will be our first time doing a premier,” she said. “We really want the community to be involved with this and feel like they are apart of the show. I’m glad we get to showcase our area. I think this will be a great resource for us, and hopefully we can get more people from the area employed in the film industry. We are trying to get as much of our local residents involved, whether it be as part of the crew or part of the cast.”

Because of the nature of the show, guests must be 18 or older to attend. Space is limited, to register visit sjbparish.com.

The St. John Center is putting the premier together St. John Baptist Parish Economic Development in partnership with the River Parishes Tourist Commission and Reserve Telecommunications.

There will be free food, beverages and giveaways throughout the night.

— By Raquel Derganz Baker