Sleeping Dogs movie will no longer be made, according to actor Donnie Yen

In a new interview with the website Polygon, Chinese actor Donnie Yen revealed that the movie of Sleeping Dogs, an adaptation of United Front Games’ acclaimed action game announced in 2017, will no longer be made.

“I spent quite a bit of time (on the project) and worked a lot with the producers. I also invested some of my own money to get drafts and some of the rights,” Yen explained to Polygon. “I waited for years. Years. And I really want to do it (the film). I have all these ideas in my head, and unfortunately … I don’t know, you know how it works in Hollywood, right? I spent many years on this project, it’s unfortunate.”

The news probably will not surprise Sleeping Dogs fans considering that there had been no real updates on the film for a long time, but it certainly will not please them.

First revealed in 2017, the Sleeping Dogs film would have seen Yen take on the role of protagonist Wei Shen. In 2018 Yen said in an Instagram post that the film was in the works, and at one point, as Polygon also recalls, there was speculation that Indonesian Timo Tjahjanto would be the director.

In a recent Twitter post, Tjahjanto said that several years ago he met with Yen to work on a project based on a video game that ended up in so-called “development hell,” however. And apparently, unfortunately, he will not get out of there.