Sleeping Dogs

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Sleeping Dogs

In this gripping crime thriller, Russell Crowe stars as Roy Freeman, an ex-homicide detective with a fractured memory, forced to revisit a case he can't remember. As a man's life hangs in the balance on death row, Freeman must piece together the brutal evidence from a decade-old murder investigation, uncovering a sinister web of buried secrets and betrayals linking to his past. With only instincts to trust, he faces a chilling truth - sometimes, it's best to let sleeping dogs lie.

Run time

1h 50m

Genre

Action, Crime/Thriller

Director

ADAM COOPER

Writer

ADAM COOPER Allegiant, Assassin's Creed
BILL COLLAGE Allegiant, Assassin's Creed

Producers

MARK FASANO American Ultra
ADAM COOPER Of Kings And Prophets
BILL COLLAGE Of Kings And Prophets
POUYA SHAHBAZIAN Divergent, Allegiant

Cast

RUSSELL CROWE Unhinged, Gladiator
KAREN GILLAN Guardians Of The Galaxy, Jumanji: The Next Level
MARTON CSÓKÁS The Lord of the Rings
TOMMY FLANAGAN Guardians of the Galaxy, FX's Sons of Anarchy
HARRY GREENWOOD The Nightingale, Hacksaw Ridge, Pacific
THOMAS M. WRIGHT Everest

Russell Crowe

Roy Freeman

Russell Crowe

Roy Freeman

RUSSELL CROWE is an Academy Award® winner who is regarded as one of the finest actors of our time. Crowe’s many acting honors include three consecutive Best Actor Oscar® nominations for his work in the acclaimed 1999 drama The Insider; the 2000 Best Picture winner Gladiator, for which he took home the Oscar; and Best Picture winner A Beautiful Mind in 2001.

In addition to the Academy Award, Crowe’s performance as Maximus, the Roman general- turned- gladiator in Ridley Scott’s Gladiator earned him Best Actor honors from several critics’ organizations, including the Broadcast Film Critics and London Film Critics Circle. He also received Golden Globe, BAFTA and Screen Actors Guild nominations for his performance.

The year prior, Crowe obtained his first Oscar nomination for his portrayal of tobacco company whistle-blower Jeffrey Wigand in Michael Mann’s The Insider. He was awarded Best Actor by the Los Angeles Film Critics Association, Broadcast Film Critics Association, National Society of Film Critics and the National Board of Review. He garnered Golden Globe, BAFTA, and SAG nominations the same year.

Crowe’s masterful portrayal of Nobel Prize winner John Forbes Nash, Jr. in Ron Howard’s A Beautiful Mind brought him his third Oscar nomination, as well as his third consecutive Critics’ Choice Award. He took home the Golden Globe, BAFTA and SAG Award, and several other critics groups Awards for Best Actor. In 2005, Crowe reunited with Howard in Cinderella Man, and his portrayal of Jim Braddock earned him both Golden Globe and SAG nominations and won him the Australian Film Institute (AFI) Award for Best Actor.

Crowe made his directorial debut in 2015 with the sweeping epic The Water Diviner, in which he also starred. The film won three Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts Awards, including Best Picture. His second directorial film, Poker Face, a thriller in which he also stars, was recently released.

Crowe recently starred in the supernatural thriller The Pope’s Exorcist, directed by Julius Avery for Screen Gems, and opposite Zac Efron in Apple’s The Greatest Beer Run Ever, directed by Peter Farrelly. He will next be seen in slew of films: Sony/Marvels’ Kraven the Hunter; the action-thriller Land of Bad and the thriller Sleeping Dogs. He also played ‘Zeus’ in Taika Waititi’s Thor: Love and Thunder.

Additional film credits include Solstice’s psychological thriller Unhinged; Jed Kurzel’s The True History of the Kelly Gang with George MacKay; Universal’s The Mummy opposite Tom Cruise; Joel Edgerton’s Boy Erased with Nicole Kidman and Lucas Hedges; The Nice Guys with Ryan Gosling; Darren Aronofsky’s biblical drama Noah; Gabriele Muccino’s Fathers & Daughter’s; Akiva Goldsman’s Winter’s Tale; Zack Snyder’s Man of Steel; Tom Hooper’s acclaimed screen adaptation of the musical Les Miserables; and Allen Hughes’ Broken City. He has worked on several Ridley Scott-directed projects such as A Good Year, American Gangster, Body of Lies and Robin Hood. Among his other credits are Peter Weir’s Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World, for which he earned a Golden Globe nomination; Taylor Hackford’s Proof of Life; 3:10 to Yuma, with Christian Bale; Kevin Macdonald’s State of Play, with Ben Affleck; Paul Haggis’ The Next Three Days; and in RZA’s The Man with the Iron Fists.

On the television side, Crowe received rave reviews for his performance as Roger Ailes in Showtime’s The Loudest Voice, starring opposite Naomi Watts and Sienna Miller. He won the Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Mini-Series or Motion Picture for TV and received SAG and Critics Choice award nominations.
Born in New Zealand, but raised Australia it was there Crowe gained international attention for his work on the big screen. He was recognized three consecutive years by the AFI, starting in 1990, when he was nominated for Best Actor for The Crossing; in 1991 when he won Best Supporting Actor for Proof and the following year winning the Best Actor Awards from both the AFI and the Australian Film Critics for his performance in Romper Stomper. The 1993 Seattle International Film Festival not only named him Best Actor for his work in Romper Stomper but in Hammers Over the Anvil too. Crowe’s American film debut was in Sam Raimi’s 1995 western, The Quick and the Dead and later went on to earn acclaim for his role in Curtis Hanson’s crime drama L.A. Confidential. His early film credits include Mystery, Alaska, Heaven’s Burning, Virtuosity, The Sum of Us, For the Moment, Love in Limbo, The Silver Brumby, The Efficiency Expert and Prisoners of the Sun. Crowe has since starred in a long and diverse list of film and television credits capturing audiences worldwide.

Karen Gillan

Laura Baines / Elizabeth Westlake

Karen Gillan

Laura Baines / Elizabeth Westlake

A talented actress, writer and director, Karen Gillan continues to expand her repertoire with dynamic projects alongside notable filmmakers and actors.

Upcoming, Gillan will be seen reprising her role as ‘Nebula’ in James Gunn’s Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 opposite Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Dave Bautista and Bradley Cooper. The latest Marvel film, which could possibly lead to the end of the Guardians as we know them, will be released globally in theaters on May 5, 2023. She will also be seen starring in Late Bloomers which was written by Anna Greenfield and is loosely based on Greenfield’s experience living in Brooklyn in her 20s. The film will make its debut at the 2023 SXSW film festival.

Gillan recently wrapped production on the crime-thriller Sleeping Dogs starring alongside Academy Award winner Russell Crowe. The film is an adaptation of E.O. Chirovici’s critically acclaimed novel, ‘The Book of Mirrors’.

Prior, Gillan was seen as ‘Nebula’ in Joe and Anthony Russo’s Avengers: Endgame, alongside Robert Downey Jr, Chris Hemsworth, Mark Ruffalo, Benedict Cumberbatch, Chris Evans and Scarlett Johansson. The blockbuster, which was released on April 26, 2019, opened to rave reviews and has become the highest grossing film of all time. Gillan originated the role on screen in James Gunn’s Guardians of the Galaxy, later appearing in Guardians of the Galaxy 2, and Avengers: Infinity War. Gillan also seen in Taika Waititi’s box office hit, Thor: Love and Thunder, which was released in July 2022.

In 2022, Gillan led the cast of Riley Stearns’ sci-fi thriller Dual alongside Aaron Paul, which follows a terminally ill woman (Gillan) who opts for a cloning procedure to ease her loss on her friends and family. The film opened at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival to critical acclaim and was acquired by RLJE in a bidding war, who subsequently released the film on April 15, 2022. Prior, Gillan was seen in Judd Apatow’s The Bubble opposite Leslie Mann, Pedro Pascal, Fred Armisen, Maria Bakalova and Keegan-Michael Key. The meta-comedy centered on a group of actors and a film crew stuck inside of a “pandemic bubble” while filming the fictional project Cliff Beasts 6. The film was released on Netflix on April 1, 2022.

Gillan also starred in Navot Papushado’s action thriller, Gunpowder Milshake, about female assassin (Gillan) who, when a job goes wrong, must choose between serving the ruthless crime syndicate she works for and saving the life of an 8-year-old girl. Co-starring Angela Bassett, Lena Headey and Michelle Yeoh, the film was released in the US on Netflix on July 14, 2021, and quickly became the streamer’s #1 movie. StudioCanal released the film in the UK on September 17, 2021.

In 2019, Gillan reprised her starring role as ‘Ruby Roundhouse’ in Jake Kasdan’s, Jumanji: The Next Level, opposite Kevin Hart, Dwayne Johnson, and Jack Black. The sequel to Junmanji: Welcome to the Jungle, which was Sony’s worldwide highest grossing film of all time, earned nearly $1B worldwide.

In 2018, Gillan made her directorial debut with The Party’s Just Beginning, which she also wrote, produced, and starred in. The film premiered to rave reviews at the 2018 Tribeca Film Festival and was released by The Orchard on December 7, 2019. The film was released in the UK on December 1, 2019.

Other film credits include Nick Bruno and Troy Quane’s Spies in Disguise alongside Will Smith and Tom Holland ,Twentieth Century Fox’s Call of the Wild opposite Bradley Whitford and Harrison Ford, Michael Dowse’s Stuber, James Ponsoldt’s The Circle with Tom Hanks and Emma Watson, Ti West’s In A Valley of Violence alongside Ethan Hawke and John Travolta, John McKay’s Not Another Happy Ending, Adam McKay’s Best Picture nominated The Big Short, alongside Ryan Gosling, Brad Pitt, Christian Bale, and Steve Carell, Collin Schiffli’s All Creatures Below, opposite David Dastmalchian, Harris Goldberg’s Alex & The List alongside Jennifer Morrison and Patrick Fugit, and the horror/thriller box office hit Oculus.

On television, Gillan was featured in three seasons of the BBC’s critically acclaimed series Doctor Who. Gillan starred as ‘Amy Pond,’ a companion of the series protagonist the Doctor, in his eleventh incarnation, played by Matt Smith. Gillan appeared as a series regular from the fifth season to midway through the seventh season.

Prior television credits include ABC’s Selfie, HBO’S 7 Days in Hell and BBC’s We’ll Take Manhattan.

Off screen, Gillan is an avid supporter of the charity Mikey’s Line, a mobile suicide prevention text service and hotline based in her hometown of Inverness, Scotland.

Márton Csókás

Doctor Joseph Wieder

Tommy Flanagan

Jimmy Remis

Harry Greenwood

Richard Finn

Thomas Wright

Wayne Devereaux

Thomas Wright

Wayne Devereaux

Thomas Wright is the director, producer and co-writer of the award-winning feature, Acute Misfortune, based on journalist Erik Jensen’s biography of Australian artist Adam Cullen. The film, Wright's debut, was named the best Australian film of 2019 and one of the ten best Australian films of the decade by The Guardian, who called it, in their five-star review, 'an enthralling, complex triumph’. The film was the winner of The Age Critics’ Prize at Melbourne International Film Festival and Screen Daily named it in their best films of the year. The Hollywood Reporter hailed it 'one of the year's most striking and accomplished directorial debuts.’

The Stranger, Wright’s second feature film as writer/director, premiered at the 2022 Festival de Cannes in Un Certain Regard. The film stars BAFTA winner Sean Harris and Joel Edgerton, who also produces with Anonymous Content and See-Saw Films. Released theatrically in Australia to rave reviews- ‘Unconventional... Eerie... Understated... Entrancing... “The Stranger” confirms that Wright has arrived’ – the film was released by Netflix globally October 19, 2022, was the #2 most viewed film in its first week and remained in the top 10 for several weeks. Nominated in nearly every category of the 2022 AACTA Awards, it won for Best Screenplay and Best Supporting Actor (Sean Harris) along with the Australian Directors Guild Award for Best Direction in a Narrative Feature Film and the Film Critics Circle Awards for Best Film, Best Screenplay, Best Director, Best Actor (Joel Egerton) and Best Supporting Actor (Sean Harris). It was nominated for Australian Writers Guild and NSW Premier’s Literary Awards in 2023.

As an actor, Wright came to international attention in Jane Campion’s Top of The Lake (Sundance Channel / BBC), for which he received a US Critics’ Choice Award nomination; in Everest (Working Title / Universal); in Cedric Jimenez’s The Man with the Iron Heart; and in the award- winning features Van Dieman’s Land, Balibo and Warwick Thornton’s Sweet Country.

Wright was most recently seen in the series Barkskins, based on the bestselling novel by Pulitzer Prize-winner Annie Proulx and produced by Scott Rudin Productions. Other lead roles in US series include Outsiders (WGN America / Sony) and the 2014 Peabody Award-Winning series The Bridge (FX).

Wright founded the theatre company Black Lung in 2006, at the age of twenty-two. Black Lung was named one of the most influential theatre companies of the decade by The Australian, receiving numerous awards and widespread critical acclaim.

Adam Cooper

Director / Co-Writer

Director's Statement

As a storyteller, I am drawn to characters in crisis. The nature of that crisis can take on many forms – identity, mortality, faith – but at the centre, there’s always someone who is struggling to make sense of their life. Someone who goes on a journey from a lost or fragmented state, to one where they can begin to restore themselves. This is very much the story of our protagonist, Roy Freeman. His crisis is an existential one, as he’s struggling with the most existential question of them all –WHO AM I? His memory loss has robbed him of his quality of life. The foundation of who he thinks he is on any given day, is built on sand – unstable and ever- shifting. It’s like part of his soul has been taken from him or wandered off. Roy’s quest to reclaim his past is the emotional core of SLEEPING DOGS, but that quest will be fraught with peril – as it’s only through an investigation into a forgotten murder case that our protagonist can achieve what he seeks. The irony of this, is that in achieving his goal, he wishes he hadn’t. He wishes that he had just let sleeping dogs lie.

Cinematically, I aspired to make a movie that stands among the greats in this genre Christopher Nolan’s Memento, Alan Parker’s Angel Heart, Scorsese’s Shutter Island – and am excited to take viewers on a journey into Roy’s forgotten past. To take them on an investigative thrill ride ripe with twists, turns and surprises, but to also make them feel everything Roy is feeling.

What thematically excites me about this story is that it deals with the role memory and our awareness of our past plays in shaping who we are, how we look at the world, and the way in which we behave. It is a universal notion, that what has happened to us, what we have done, or what has been done to us, irrevocably influences who we are. But what if we could forget all that? What if all of the trauma of our past could be washed away? Forgotten. Who would we be? Is ignorance in fact bliss? Or in forgetting all that is bad, is there now no point of reference or what it really means to be moral and good? Existential questions for sure, and ones that our protagonist will confront on his journey to eventual redemption ... or reckoning.

This film was a labor of love, between our actors and crew in Melbourne, Australia. Thank you for being such willing collaborators on my directorial debut. When you give everybody permission to bring their ideas to the table, you end up with something enthralling.

Adam Cooper

Photo courtesy of The Avenue.

SLEEPING DOGS l Official HD Trailer l Starring Russell Crowe & Karen Gillan l Only In Theaters 3.22

Video courtesy of The Avenue.