BATON ROUGE- This year will be another active year for the city’s film-making industry, according to Mayor-President Melvin “Kip” Holden.

Holden said that the Baton Rouge Film Commission is working with 12 projects that are “very interested” in filming in Baton Rouge later this year.

The projects come along with several other major films that were or currently are filming in the city.

They include:

Paramount Pictures’ Jack Reacher: Never Back Down, starring Tom Cruise and Cobie Smulders (of How I Met Your Mother), filmed extensively in downtown BR in January.

 Beautifully Broken, a faith friendly, independent feature film based on a true story, is currently in production from local company, Film Incito.

Camera Obscura, an independent feature film, is currently in production from New York-based ModernCine, starring Christopher Denham (from Argo).

Gifted, an independent feature film, wrapped last week.  It was the directorial debut of Bob Shaye, founder of the extremely successful studio, New Line Cinema. New Line is best known for releasing the Lord of the Rings franchise.

Shaye said that his experience was “favorable” while filming in the city.

“The local talent pool and equipment availability were good,” he said.

“The cooperation with municipal building authorities was appreciated. The ease of shooting on location at night with the assistance of local police was valuable."

There are also several television and cable projects that are being filmed in the city. Some that wrapped recently include:

AMC’s non-fiction series, Ride, starring Norman Reedus (from Walking Dead) , was filmed in BR on March 16 and 17.

A major reality series from NZK Productions was filmed here on March 7 and 8.

Baton Rouge was named the best small city in the nation to live and work as a filmmaker last year by Movie Magazine and placed third in the rankings for 2016.