The first draft of the script for the movie adaptation of Sleeping Dogs is "done."
That's according to Marvel star Simu Liu, who revealed over the weekend that the script for the film was complete, albeit carefully redacting some details from the screenshot. He marked the news by sharing a photo of his own sleeping dog.
in honour of our sleeping dogs script draft being done, here’s my sleepy dog 👍 pic.twitter.com/l1KsFNDj5V
— Simu Liu (@SimuLiu) October 18, 2025
When a commenter responded to the good news and asked if the actor and producer had "worked things out" with the game's publisher and IP-holder Square Enix, Liu said: "They’re absolutely great, it’s the studios that don’t seem to understand how important this IP is BUT we will get them there."
If you were hoping for more, I'm afraid Liu shared little else, but it should be good news nonetheless given the adaptation has been languishing in development hell for at least eight years.
As IGN has reported, Story Kitchen is leading the Sleeping Dogs live action feature film project, with Simu Liu, who plays Shang-Chi in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, producing and set to play the lead role of Wei Shen. Story Kitchen has form when it comes to video game adaptations, having worked on everything from the Sonic the Hedgehog films to Netflix’s animated Tomb Raider series.
The original adaptation was announced in 2017 with Donnie Yen set to star, but the film disappeared a year later and, earlier this year, Yen himself confirmed it had been scrapped, saying: "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." Just a few weeks later, however, Liu tweeted to say he was working with the rights holders to bring the much-loved video game to the big screen.
Sleeping Dogs was first released in 2012 on PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and PC and tells the story of detective Wei Shen as he infiltrates one of Hong Kong's notorious Triad crime syndicates. While it failed to meet publisher Square Enix's lofty sales expectations, it is much-loved by fans and sequel hopes have followed it ever since. We thought Sleeping Dogs was great, writing in IGN's Sleeping Dogs: Definitive Edition review: "Sleeping Dogs: Definitive Edition doesn't mess much with what made the original game so great. And that's a good thing." It returned an 8.5.
A sequel was canceled in late 2013 just before it entered production, and its original developer, United Front Games, shut down three years later.
Vikki Blake is a reporter for IGN, as well as a critic, columnist, and consultant with 15+ years experience working with some of the world's biggest gaming sites and publications. She's also a Guardian, Spartan, Silent Hillian, Legend, and perpetually High Chaos. Find her at BlueSky.
