Sleeping Dogs received a lot of praise for its action and open world in 2012. The planned film adaptation has already had a bumpy road.
Do you remember Sleeping Dogs? The open-world action game is already 13 years old, but still enjoys a good reputation. Since its release in 2012, the title has been considered one of the best alternatives to the popular GTA series – as evidenced by our review from back in the day.
A film adaptation was even announced – as early as 2017.For eight years, the film project has been in a constant state of flux The originally intended leading actor Donnie Yen (Rogue One: A Star Wars Story) only announced at the beginning of January 2025 that the film adaptation was on hold.
But the truth apparently looks quite different.And according to IGN, new life is now to be breathed into the project. And there’s a big name behind it.
Hollywood is not getting off the ground
The above-mentioned Donnie Yen recently left no doubt that the Sleeping Dogs movie is unlikely to wake any sleeping dogs anytime soon. He told Polygon a few weeks ago: Polygon
I’ve spent a lot of time and work with producers and even put in some of my own money to acquire the drafts and some of the rights. I’ve been waiting for years. Years. And I really want to make [the movie].
I have all these visions in my head, and unfortunately… I don’t know, you know how Hollywood is, right? I’ve spent many, many years on it. Well, on to better things.
With Marvel power to box office success after all?
Curtain up for Simu Liu. Most of you know him from another franchise, namely the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The actor playing superhero Shang-Chi has been on the bench in the MCU for years, waiting for his next assignment. Apparently, he has enough time to romp around in other worlds, in addition to other film appearances such as in the successful Barbie movie.
In a tweet on X (formerly Twitter), the actor announces that he wants to work with the rights holders to bring the game movie to a successful conclusion after all.
I absolutely want Sleeping Dogs 2.
If a Sleeping Dogs movie is happening, hopefully that will generate enough interest to warrant a sequel.@SimuLiu Are you Wei? If so, Please work your magic https://t.co/mGbj7ir6uW
— Zengames44 (@zengames44) January 28, 2025
Contrary to some reports to the contrary on the internet, Simu Liu does not see himself in the leading role of police officer Wei Shen. As he makes clear to another X-User in a follow-up tweet, his first call will be to Donnie Yen.
The Marvel star would also like to campaign for a sequel to the video game However, this is more of a wish than a realistic goal for the near future. As for the movie, it remains to be seen whether the actor can set the slow Hollywood mills in motion.
What about Shang-Chi 2? Of course, only Marvel in the form of MCU mastermind Kevin Feige knows that at the moment. The fact that a sequel to the fan-favorite flick has been so long in coming also annoys Simu Liu himself. You can read more about this in the article linked above.
A look at the planned MCU release dates makes it even more likely that the next time we see Shang-Chi in the cinema, he will not be in his own movie, but as part of the ensemble of the next Avengers movie.
