Tong’s ‘Monkey King’ wins Beijing International Screenwriting contest

Los Angeles film and TV writer Galen Tong is the feature film grand prize winner of the inaugural Beijing International Screenwriting Competition.

Tong, a graduate of USC’s School of Cinema-Television, was among nearly 1,000 U.S.-based writers who competed for the award, which includes $15,000 in prize money and the opportunity to have their script produced into a movie.

Tong and four other feature film finalists were honored in May.

Called “The Monkey King,” Tong’s script is a martial-arts adventure movie set in Beijing at the turn of the century. The story centers on a Chinese rebel warrior who leads a resistance against foreign colonizers.

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“I’m elated,’’ Tong said. “I just can’t believe this happened. It means so much to me.”

Tong, who has written projects for CBS, Fox and Discovery Channel, said he initially pitched a similar story several years ago to Disney, but the Burbank-based studio passed on the script.

He and four other finalists had an all-expenses paid trip to Beijing to research their stories.

“They gave us the red carpet treatment,’’ he said. “They did everything to help us in every way.”

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Kevin Niu, the competition’s chairman, said investors in China also expressed interest in turning Tong’s tale into a movie.

“It truly is just a good story,’’ he said. “We think this will be very interesting to both worlds in China and the U.S.”

The contest is sponsored by the state-owned Beijing International Creative Industry Corp. Other partners include LeTV, China’s biggest online distributor for TV and movies, and Harvardwood, a nonprofit group that represents Harvard University alumni, faculty and others working in the arts and entertainment industries.

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