Several years ago, Asian action legend Donnie Yen was cast to play the lead role in “Sleeping Dogs”.
The project is a film adaptation of the acclaimed Hong Kong-set 2012 open world action-adventure video game. Will Yun Lee voiced the lead role of Wei Shen, an undercover cop in Hong Kong on a mission to take down a powerful criminal organization – the Sun On Yee Triad.
Yen will take on that role for the film version which has been trying to get out of development hell for a few years. Recently Collider spoke to the actor who offered an update on the film’s progress:
“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 looks forward to the movie as he knows the game developers are fans of his and borrowed some of his moves, while the contemporary setting is a big draw:
“I was caught in that 12, 13 years of the Ip Man image. I want to go back to…contemporary action. When I look at this material, I said, ‘Wow. This could be a perfect contemporary action world that I could do.’ And it already has a fan base, right? It’s Infernal Affairs. It’s Flash Point. It got all of those elements. Kind of like Raging Fire, but even more edgier because I’m playing an undercover [cop]. I could do so many things.”
Yen says much of the conversation around the film in recent times have been about whether to directly adapt the game or simply take elements of it to make an original story. He adds that he can “visualize the whole look of this film” and says it’ll be something very special.