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‘Good Boy’ Creator Ben Leonberg on Directing His Dog to Indie Horror Stardom: ‘I’m Maybe a Little Bit Crazy for Thinking I Could and Would Do It’
'Good Boy' writer-director Ben Leonberg breaks down how he directed his family dog to indie horror stardom.
Shot over three years in a New Jersey Airbnb, “Good Boy” takes inspiration from a classic horror theme, putting the audience in the POV of a dog who knows something is wrong long before its human family can notice the signs of trouble. Amid the movie’s festival run, Leonberg sat down with Variety to discuss the film’s conception, the keys to directing a dog and his three-year journey to bring “Good Boy” to the big screen. So he’s been following my instructions: “Here, sit, stay, neon sign!” And then he’s just like, “What does that mean?” When you take out my talking on set, which is profoundly unscary, and replace it with all the amazing sound design and music, the shot of a dog reacting to that strange empty corner, it looks like a performance.
Or read this on Variety