Though the video game adaptation genre is more alive than ever, Donnie Yen‘s long-gestating adaptation of an underrated action game has found itself scrapped. Having begun his career as a stuntman in the Hong Kong film industry, Yen steadily enjoyed a rise to stardom as an actor in the ’90s with the TV adaptation of Bruce Lee’s Fist of Fury, as well as making his directorial debut with 1997’s Legend of the Wolf. The 2000s, however, would see him break out on an international scope as he began choreographing and appearing in many Hollywood action movies, namely Blade II and the Oscar-nominated Hero.
Yen would go on to find further acclaim with his leading role in the Ip Man franchise, leading the four mainline movies and gearing up to return for the in-development fifth movie. He would later find himself regaining success in Hollywood with his roles as Chirrut Îmwe in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story and Xiang in Vin Diesel’s xXx: Return of Xander Cage. While his turn as Caine in John Wick: Chapter 4 has set him up to lead his own spinoff of the action franchise, it looks like one passion project won’t come to fruition for him.
Yen’s Sleeping Dogs Adaptation Is No Longer Happening
The Star Also Reveals He Had Put His Own Money Into Its Development
Amid his resurging popularity in Hollywood, Yen became attached to a film adaptation of Sleeping Dogs. Developed by United Front Games and published by Square Enix, the 2012 game put players in the shoes of Wei Shen, an undercover Hong Kong police officer who works to infiltrate and bring down the Sun On Yee Triad organization. Yen was set to play Shen, while Fast & Furious franchise vet Neal H. Moritz was attached to produce, with the last update coming in September 2024 when Nobody 2‘s Timo Tjahjanto revealed he had once been attached to direct before it fell into development hell.
Now, during a recent interview with Polygon to discuss the American release of his new action-legal thriller The Prosecutor, Yen was asked whether his Sleeping Dogs movie adaptation was still moving ahead. Beginning by reflecting on the long road to trying to get the movie off of the ground, including investing “some of my own money” to get drafts written and the rights to the game, Yen indicated that the movie was unfortunately dead, chalking it up to an unfortunate victim of Hollywood development hell. Check out what Yen said below:
I spent a lot of time and did a lot of work with these producers, and I even invested some of my own money into obtaining the drafts and some of the rights. I waited for years. Years. And I really want to do it. I have all these visions in my head, and unfortunately… I don’t know, you know how Hollywood goes, right? I spent many, many years on it. It was an unfortunate thing. Well, on to better things.
Our Take On Sleeping Dogs’ Cancellation
Another Unfortunate Blow To An Overlooked Property
While Yen’s comments do sound like there’s still a sliver of hope it can escape development hell at some point, his update on the Sleeping Dogs movie proves to be yet another devastating blow to the title. Even before the movie’s development, there had been attempts to develop both a sequel and a spinoff entitled Triad Wars, the latter of which would have been akin to an MMO and slated for a PC release in 2015, having made it as far as the beta-testing stage before shutting down.
Related
Why Sleeping Dogs Is The Best True Crime Game
At one point in development, Sleeping Dogs was going to be True Crime: Hong Kong, but in the end, it managed to become so much more.
Even the sequel, as ambitious as it was said to be, didn’t even make it to the production stage and United Front shut down in 2016. With Yen’s Sleeping Dogs movie now also shut down, it’s really a disappointment that the hard-hitting and often funny world of the source material continues to not get the love it deserves.
Source: Polygon
Sleeping Dogs is an action-adventure game set in modern-day Hong Kong. Having started life as part of the True Crime series, it was eventually picked up by Square Enix after the original project was canceled by Activision Blizzard. The game sold more than one and a half million copies in its first year, prompting the release of a remastered edition of the title in October of 2014.
- Released
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August 14, 2012
- Developer(s)
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United Front Games
- Publisher(s)
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Square Enix
- Engine
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Havok
- ESRB
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M For Mature 17+ due to Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Sexual Content, Strong Language, Use of Drugs