The film adaptation of Sleeping Dogs, starring Star Wars actor Donnie Yen, has been cancelled.
This is stated by Yen himself, who confirmed the cancellation to Polygon.
“I spent a lot of time and worked a lot with these producers, and even invested some of my own money into getting 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 that. It was kind of unfortunate .
“Well, on to better things.”
Yen confirmed that the film was in development in February 2018, but since then little has been known and no release date has been given, so it's not particularly surprising to discover its cancellation.
Sleeping Dogs was an open world game released in 2012 published by Square Enix, which was a sort of GTA style game set in Hong Kong but with martial arts and parkour combat.
Although well received by critics, criminally it remains a cult classic.
Still, a film starring and directed by Hong Kong filmmaker Yen would have been a perfect fit. And the live-action reveal trailer above certainly gives an idea of what we're missing.
Many other film adaptations have been revealed recently. Sony confirmed earlier this week that both Horizon Zero Dawn and Helldivers will be adapted into films.
Ghost of Tsushima will also be adapted into an anime series.