When director Michael Lazovsky first reached out to Jeremy Corbell, he had no idea he would step into a world where secrecy, fear, and the unknown would become the backdrop of his latest film. Sleeping Dog, which opened in select theaters on May 8, 2026, and became available digitally on May 12, is not just another documentary about unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAPs, or UFOs). Instead, it’s a gripping look at the human cost and societal implications of chasing the truth behind some of the world’s most tightly held secrets.
Lazovsky, who studied filmmaking at the American Film Institute, initially reached out to Corbell as part of a class assignment that required him to contact someone he admired. At the time, he was simply looking for work. What he found instead was a story that would shift his perspective entirely. He started as an editor on Corbell’s and veteran journalist George Knapp’s Weaponized podcast, but soon became a producer and, eventually, the director of a documentary that would challenge his own skepticism. “I’m very good as a director at catching a lie or a performance,” Lazovsky told The Hollywood Reporter. “Jeremy has not lied to me.”
Corbell’s journey into the heart of the UAP disclosure movement began when he released military-filmed footage and whistleblower testimony that would eventually play a role in Pentagon investigations and congressional hearings. The stakes quickly escalated. “People will embed themselves in my life from intelligence agencies,” Corbell confided, describing a world where paranoia isn’t just a feeling—it’s reality. The film’s title, Sleeping Dog, comes from a warning Corbell received from intelligence officials: “Don’t kick a sleeping dog.” The phrase refers to deeply compartmentalized legacy programs tied to UAP technology and alleged “biologics”—secrets some would rather keep buried.
As Lazovsky became more involved, what began as a story about UFOs transformed into what he called “a real-life horror film.” The pressure on Corbell grew so intense that Lazovsky recorded a contingency video in case anything happened to him during filming. “In the case of Jeremy’s passing, what would happen to the movie?” he recalled wondering. “I was not trained for this … it was a very scary experience.”
Corbell’s reporting brought him into private meetings with Congress and put him in the position of helping whistleblowers come forward. In one instance, he disguised a whistleblower as part of his camera crew to protect their identity, a testament to the level of fear and risk involved. “A lot of what George and I get, we don’t ask for,” Corbell said. “That’s what pisses me off when people say, ‘Oh, you’re CIA.’ That’s not by magic. That’s by hardcore investigative journalism.”
Some of the most compelling evidence Corbell cites includes the 2019 swarms around the USS Omaha and USS Russell, where more than 100 UAPs were observed around Navy warships across a roughly 100-mile radius. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the Department of Defense later confirmed that footage released by Corbell and Knapp was authentic and officially designated as UAP footage. “That was a crazy move,” Corbell said. “That’s never happened in history with journalism before.”
But the secrecy doesn’t end with the military. Corbell argues that only a very limited number of people are truly “read into” the reality of UAP technology. The compartmentalization is so strict that even presidents may be left in the dark. He referenced former President Bill Clinton’s remarks on Jimmy Kimmel Live! about trying to get answers on UFOs while in office, suggesting that even the highest office isn’t immune to being misled. “It’s not the first time a president would’ve been lied to,” Corbell said. He compared the secrecy to nuclear programs, where information is shared strictly on a need-to-know basis, even within intelligence agencies. “We all know nuclear science exists, but not everybody can make an atom bomb. Some people are read in, some people are not.”
Corbell also highlighted the culture of denial surrounding classified programs, noting, “There are certain programs that are protected where you’re supposed to deny even to Congress. That is part of the protection program.” When asked whether a president like Donald Trump would ever publicly disclose such information, Corbell laughed, saying, “Come on. It’s the greatest PR move of all time.” Yet, he insists the issue transcends politics, touching on national security. Intelligence agencies, he says, view the potential to reverse-engineer unknown technology as a strategic advantage for creating new weaponry and defensive systems for the United States.
Corbell’s claims are bolstered by whistleblower testimony from former intelligence official David Grusch, who told Congress that the government possessed recovered “biologics” tied to UAP programs. Corbell called this “the closest held secret in the American intelligence agencies. Not everybody’s exposed to that, but it happens to be true.”
The risks faced by those coming forward are real. Michael Herrera, a former Marine, knows this firsthand. While stationed in Indonesia in 2009, Herrera claims he encountered a 300-foot UFO during humanitarian operations. He described seeing a rotating object that changed colors and emitted a humming sound. Attempting to film the object, Herrera was ambushed by men in black as the craft shot silently toward the ocean at lightning speed. When he checked his camera at camp, both the battery and memory card were gone. “There was an Air Force lieutenant colonel that met up with us and some of the guys that were with me and basically made us forcefully sign a non-disclosure agreement and a TSSI document that stated that we couldn’t talk about what we saw,” Herrera told NewsNation. “We were threatened with treason, with a capital crime, including death or imprisonment.”
In 2025, Herrera briefed the Senate Intelligence Committee and the Pentagon about his experience, warning other whistleblowers about the risks of coming forward. “I’m still always cautious to let people to understand that there is a big risk when coming forward,” he said. “Working towards people’s personal safety is the biggest concern as long as they’re protected. … They’re losing their career, they’re losing their clearances, they’re losing everything, and including their pensions and their benefits.”
Not everyone agrees on the origin of these objects. UFO researcher Dr. Stephen Greer told NewsNation that the majority of sightings are “man-made,” developed under “illegal and unconstitutional programs.” Greer claimed that Herrera witnessed crates with HVAC systems being loaded onto the 300-foot octagonal UFO, insisting, “But it was not alien. It was ours.” He added, “And so the ones that are man-made are the dominant phenomenon being seen. There are extraterrestrial ones, or NHI, non-human intelligence. But that’s probably a minority now.”
The human toll of this pursuit is evident throughout Sleeping Dog. Corbell described the film as “the most difficult thing I have ever allowed people to see, personally.” He spoke candidly about the emotional strain: “It’s hard for me to make new friends. People will embed themselves in my life from intelligence agencies … three, four years down the line, they’re trying to get you to solicit to entrap you.” Lazovsky decided to include these moments in the film because they revealed the emotional cost of the work.
Ultimately, Corbell sees the film as being about more than just UFOs. “Michael’s movie’s about journalism,” he said. “It’s about freedom of speech, which means freedom of thought, because if we don’t know what we’re supposed to be talking about, we don’t have freedom of thought.” He hopes Sleeping Dog will push audiences to think more deeply about secrecy, transparency, and who controls access to information. “More importantly, this is a topic that they don’t want you to be able to have open, scientific, philosophical discussions about,” Corbell said.
In a world where the lines between fact and fiction blur, Sleeping Dog invites viewers to question not just what we know, but how—and why—we’re allowed to know it.