Since the release of Square Enix’s 2012 Hong Kong crime adventure Sleeping Dogs, fans have been clamouring for a sequel, and while that doesn’t seem likely at this point, at least the IP still lives on in the form of the Simu Liu-led movie adaptation, which has now gained its director in the form of Timo Tjahjanto.
As reported by Forbes, Timo Tjahjanto, the Indonesian filmmaker known for his horror and action works like 2018’s May the Devil Take You and The Night Comes for Us, and 2025’s Nobody 2, will lend his expertise to the movie, which will hopefully mean a bunch of impressive fight scenes to mirror the raw brutality and action seen in the game. Apart from his involvement in the film, however, no further details on Sleeping Dogs have been revealed yet.
The original game, which was released in 2012, initially started its life as part of the True Crime series, but was cancelled by Activision Blizzard in 2011. The rights to the IP was then acquired by Square Enix, along with its eventual rename, making it a spiritual successor to the True Crime franchise. Developed by United Front Games, Sleeping Dogs centred on an undercover police officer Wei Shen, who sets out to infiltrate the notorious Sun On Yee Triad organisation, slowly working his way to the top while struggling to balance duty and his personal beliefs.
Following the game’s success, a sequel was reportedly in the works at United Front, but plans were scrapped in late 2013, and following the studio’s closure in 2016, all hope for the continuation of Wei Shen’s story was lost, but at least now, the IP has seen a revival of sorts, albeit in movie form, and judging by how similar Simu Liu (Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings) looks compared to Wei Shen (who was originally voiced and portrayed by Will Yun Lee), it seems the movie might aim for a faithful adaptation of the source material instead of trying to deliver something new.
While the Sleeping Dogs movie is still in its early stages and no release window has been announced yet, let’s hope that the film at least does the video game justice, as if it does well, it could very well lead to regained interest in the video game IP, and hopefully open the doors for another developer to step in and finally make the dreams of a sequel into a reality.
Kevin is a reformed PC Master Race gamer with a penchant for franchise “duds” like Darksiders III and Dead Space 3. He has made it his life-long mission to play every single major game release – lest his wallet dies trying.
Si Jia
