Back in 2017, it was announced that Donnie Yen would be taking on the lead role in a movie adaptation of the bestselling video game Sleeping Dogs from the now shut down developer United Front Games and publisher Square Enix.
Now, after years of silence, Yen has provided an update on the Sleeping Dogs movie during an interview with Collider, stating that he is told “every single day” that it will happen in the future.
“I’m still hopeful. I mean, every day they tell me it’s going to happen. I’m co-producing and collaborating with [producers] Neil Moritz and Toby [Ascher], with their company, and currently talking with a couple of big platforms. And they tell me every single day it’s going to happen, so we’ll see. Like I said, I believe in destiny. So, if it’s going to happen, hopefully, it will happen the first half of next year.”
Yen continued to explain that he does have the filmmaking rights to Sleeping Dogs and that the current conversations with the studio are focusing on whether to directly adapt the game or to make an original story: “Most likely, we’re probably gonna’ make more of a modern, updated version of Sleeping Dogs.”
Sleeping Dogs, which is currently available on Xbox 360, Xbox One, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, PC, follows Wei Shen, a Hong Kong police officer assigned to infiltrate the Sun On Yee Triad organisation amid lots of martial arts, racing, boat chases and gunfights.
