A titan of Hong Kong cinema, Donnie Yen has carved his name into the hearts of martial arts movie enthusiasts worldwide. With lightning-fast strikes and an undeniable charisma, Yen has been captivating audiences for decades. He has been a renowned actor in Asia for a long time and his popularity worldwide has been rising in the past few years.
Thanks to the great success of John Wick: Chapter IV, Donnie Yen’s international presence has been boosted, introducing him to a wider audience. Despite his undeniable talent and growing global fame, an industry insider dismissed him as a VOD movie actor in a recent interview!
Film Critic Jeff Sneider Believes Donnie Yen is a VOD Movie Actor
In a recent podcast of John Rocha, film critic and industry insider Jeff Sneider, aka The InSneider, joined him to discuss some of the biggest happenings in the movie industry. When the discussions began with Donnie Yen, Sneider was not very excited for his reported starring in the remake of Kung-Fu.
“I don’t know if this ultimately does get made but if it does it is just like another nobody in the movie like Bob Odenkirk. Like that kind of like Violent Night, you know, 20-30 Million kind of B movie with some action, you know. Who is going to see this?”
Rocha replied that he will watch the movie when it comes out. Sneider found this surprising and asked “Donnie Yen, John? Donnie Yen?” He then went on to explain how he thinks of the action superstar.
“Donnie Yen is two things. You can look at Donnie Yen as wow! They got Donnie Yen, he’s an international superstar. Or you can look at Donnie Yen as this sounds like a VOD movie.” … “If you are an executive at Universal, are you betting your job and your livelihood at that movie and committing a 30 to 40 Million marketing campagain in addition of the budget? No!”
Essentially, Jeff Sneider does not believe Donnie Yen can lead a high-budget movie. Fans will have to wait until Kung Fu actually releases, whenever it does!
Donnie Yen is Announced in the Live-Screen Adaptation of Sleeping Dogs
Sleeping Dogs is a 2012 video game based in Hong Kong around the story of undercover police officer Wei Shen. To date, the game is considered to be a competitor to games made way above its budget. Its fanfare has increased in recent years and thus, a movie adaptation was announced in 2017.
Around the same time, Donnie Yen was revealed to be the man playing the undercover cop. The next year, he shared on social media that the movie was in production. However, there have been no major updates on the movie since then.
