Sleeping Dogs film adaptation canned, says Star Wars’ Donnie Yen

The Sleeping Dogs film adaptation, set to star Star Wars actor Donnie Yen, has been canned.

That’s according to Yen himself, who confirmed the cancellation to Polygon.

“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,” he said. “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.”

Yen confirmed the film was in development in February 2018, but little has been heard since and no release date was given, so it’s not particularly surprising to discover its cancellation.

Sleeping Dogs was a 2012-released open world game published by Square Enix, which was something of a GTA-style game set in Hong Kong but with martial arts combat and parkour.

Though received well by critics, it criminally remains a cult classic.

Still, a film starring and directed by Hong Kong filmmaker Yen would’ve been a natural fit. And the live-action reveal trailer above certainly hints at what we’re missing.

Plenty of other film adaptations have been revealed recently. Sony confirmed earlier this week both Horizon Zero Dawn and Helldivers will be adapted to film.

Ghost of Tsushima is also set to be adapted to an anime series.