The Good Boy Director’s Next Movie Takes Flight, Filmed Entirely by Drones

written by Craig Ellison

May 1, 2026 11:04 am

The Good Boy Director’s Next Movie Takes Flight, Filmed Entirely by Drones — Image credit: Legion-Media

Good Boy director Ben Leonberg is taking horror airborne with Follow Mode, a feature shot entirely by drones that turns the sky into a predator’s point of view.

So, Ben Leonberg—you know, the guy who made last year’s haunted house film Good Boy, which, yes, forced us all to see the world through a dog’s eyes—isn’t slowing down. That movie turned a lot of heads for its oddball perspective (the literal four-legged kind), and honestly, you have to respect the commitment to weirdness. Now, Leonberg’s rolling the dice again, and this time he’s shooting for a new first: a horror movie filmed entirely with drones. Seriously, that’s the gimmick. It’s called Follow Mode, and if the setup’s any indication, there’s more than a little modern paranoia fueling this one.

Here’s What 'Follow Mode' Is Doing Differently

The big hook is right in the name—‘Follow Mode’ references the auto-follow feature you see on newer consumer drones, the same ones that let you film yourself snowboarding, surfing, or, as this movie suggests, tracking your next murder victim. (That escalated quickly, I know.) Leonberg wrote the script with Alex Cannon—the same duo behind Good Boy—and the basic pitch is refreshingly direct:

A bunch of teens knock a drone out of the sky (as you do).
Instead of the usual boring surf footage, this one contains home movies shot by a serial killer. Yes, you read that right.
Now these kids are stuck in the ultimate 'wrong place, wrong time' scenario: they need to out the killer before they end up as his next highlight reel.

Who’s Taking the Plunge?

The producers behind Smile and Twilight—Temple Hill—are backing this one, so there’s some serious horror and YA cred in the mix. Protagonist Pictures isn’t just hanging around either; they’re handling sales, shopping this thing around at Cannes, hoping some distributor steps up for a film where the camera literally never leaves the sky.

Breaking down the credits if you like to keep score:

Marty Bowen, Wyck Godfrey, John Fischer, Hal Sadoff, and Ben Levine are producing for Temple Hill.
Executive producers are Dave Bishop, James Pugh, and George Hamilton for Protagonist Pictures.

What’s All the Buzz From the People Involved?

The studio and Leonberg are—no surprise—leaning all the way in on novelty. Dave Bishop from Protagonist Pictures called it

'the kind of bold, high-concept horror that stops you in your tracks – propulsive, original and viscerally thrilling from its first frame to its last... shot entirely with drones, delivering a strikingly cinematic experience... a rare, diabolical treat that feels both groundbreaking and deeply unsettling.'

Leonberg himself puts it bluntly: as drones become more hands-off and can literally follow folks anywhere, the idea of being watched—or worse—is just sitting there, begging for a horror story. He’s basically turning everyone’s casual daydream about drone privacy into a nightmare:

'Anyone with a drone can become a peeping tom, a stalker, or worse… That anxiety drives Follow Mode.'

Temple Hill’s team is equally hyped about Leonberg’s taste for offbeat, point-of-view horror, saying they went after him specifically because of his knack for flipping perspectives. For them, Follow Mode is the next step in the 'found footage' horror tradition—only instead of camcorders or security cams, it’s all eye-in-the-sky, all the time.

Final Thoughts (And Maybe a Mild Paranoia Trigger)

Is the all-drone gimmick enough to keep us wide-eyed start to finish? Or is this just a fun experiment in tech anxiety with a horror twist? Either way, Leonberg keeps finding bizarre new angles on classic genre staples, and you can’t say he’s boring. Filmmakers are always talking about finding a 'fresh perspective,' but this guy takes it way too literally—and I mean that as a compliment.