Simu Liu is celebrating the approach of the new year early with some exciting news about his upcoming action film Sleeping Dogs. According to Liu (Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, Last Breath, The Copenhagen Test), Timo Tjahjanto (Nobody 2, The Beekeeper 2, The Night Comes for Us) is directing the anticipated adaptation of the Square Enix action-adventure game.
Where did Timo Tjahjanto get his start?
Hailing from Indonesia, Tjahjanto began turning heads when he directed the B-horror movie V/H/S/2. Three years after contributing to the found footage horror franchise, Tjahjanto burst onto the action scene with Headshot, a mixed martial arts psychological thriller starring Iko Uwais, known for The Raid and Wu Assassins. In 2018, Tjahjanto and Uwais reteamed for one of my favorite action films, The Night Comes for Us, a one-person-army crime thriller about Ito, a gangland enforcer caught amidst a treacherous and violent insurrection within his Triad crime family upon his return home from a stint abroad. Directed and written by Tjahjanto, The Night Comes for Us is positively brutal, action-packed, and relentlessly entertaining. Tjahjanto returned to the V/H/S franchise in 2021 for V/H/S/94, before circling back to action with 2022’s The Big 4 and 2024’s The Shadow Strays. His latest release finds him teaming up with Bob Odenkirk for Nobody 2, the sequel to Ilya Naishuller’s 2021 action bonanza, with Odenkirk playing Hutch Mansell, a docile family man forced back into action after his house gets burgled by two petty thieves, which, coincidentally, leads him into a bloody war with a Russian crime boss.
What is Sleeping Dogs?
Sleeping Dogs is an action game with a similar open-world format to Grand Theft Auto from Square Enix about an undercover cop who takes down the most notorious gang on the streets: the Triads. The game is set in Hong Kong and focuses on martial arts fighting, car chases, parkour stunts, and gunplay. Previously, Fast & Furious franchise producer Neal Moritz was working on bringing the movie to life with action star Donnie Yen starring in the lead role. The project never materialized. However, it sounds like Liu’s attempt to bring Sleeping Dogs to screens is progressing nicely.
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