Sleeping Dogs Movie Not Happening Anymore, Donnie Yen Confirms

Sometimes everyone already knows what happened to a project, we just need someone to confirm it.

In 2017 it was announced that there would be a live-action adaptation of the open-world crime game, Sleeping Dogs, starring Donnie Yen, who was riding high on the success of movies like Ip Man and Rogue One. Director Timo Tjahjanto was also approached to direct, giving this project a real pedigree for anyone who loves hardcore Asian action films.

Unfortunately, since about 2018 almost any mention of this movie disappeared. And now Polygon confirmed with Yen that this movie is no longer in the works.

“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,” Yen tells Polygon. “I waited for years. years. And I really wanted to do it… And unfortunately… I don’t know, you know how Hollywood goes, right?”

Yen calls it an “unfortunate thing,” but says he’s ready to move “on to better things.”

Sleeping Dogs was released back in 2012 and was developed by the now defunct United Front Games and published by Square Enix. The open world action game was effectively Grand Theft Auto in Hong Kong, with plenty of influences from Hong Kong crime cinema like Infernal Affairs and Hard Boiled. Starring undercover cop Wei Shen as he infiltrated the local Triad, Sleeping Dogs became something of a cult hit thanks to its mix of action, world design, and star-studded voice cast (including Emma Stone and Lucy Liu). The Definitive Edition received an 8.5 in our review.

Unfortunately a sequel and planned spinoff, Triad Wars, never entered into production before United Front shut down, and now the movie adaptation joins the dormant game series.

Luckily for fans of Yen, he’s been keeping himself quite busy both at home and abroad. Alongside the action movie The Prosecutor, Yen was last seen stateside as the blind assassin Caine in John Wick: Chapter 4, and according to Collider, is in talks to star and direct a Caine spinoff movie.

Matt Kim is IGN’s Senior Features Editor.