PARK CITY, Utah (Hollywood Reporter) – In its first buy of the Sundance Film Festival, Lionsgate has picked up rights to sports comedy “The Winning Season.”

Writer-director James Strouse’s film stars Sam Rockwell as the coach of a women’s high school basketball team on which his daughter plays. Emma Roberts plays a girl on his team that befriends Sam’s character. The film, a late addition to the festival, was well received at its Monday night premiere.

The sale marks Strouse’s second Sundance deal in three years; in 2007 he sold the John Cusack-starring drama “Grace Is Gone” to the Weinstein Co.

Source: Reuters/Hollywood Reporter

Side Note: If you haven’t notice already the photo gallery does have a new look to it!

LOS ANGELES — It’s the rare 17-year-old who name-checks Jonathan Safran Foer and Chuck Palahniuk in conversation.

(click on image to see full size version.)

But you haven’t met Emma Roberts, the precocious, sardonic and confident actress whose film, the family flick Hotel for Dogs, is in theaters. If you see Roberts’ name in print, it’s because of her work, not any of the colorful activities that land her peers in the tabloids.

“It’s all played out,” she says dismissively of celebrity misbehavior. “There’s not a lot of original ways to get attention in the press. Everyone has used up all the good ones — DUI, eating disorders, getting pregnant.”

Instead of making headlines, Roberts spends her time working or studying. As a child, she hated cartoons, preferring to watch “real people.”

She wanted to act early on, but her family blocked her ambitions, wary of letting a child enter the industry. Finally, when she was 10, her mother let her audition. After supporting turns in 2001’s Blow and 2002’s Grand Champion, Roberts broke out on the Nickelodeon series Unfabulous, which ran through 2007. After leads in 2006’s Aquamarine and 2007’s Nancy Drew, Roberts now headlines Hotel for Dogs, a comedy about siblings who run a plush canine palace.
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Below is the box office results for opening and the second weekend for Hotel For Dogs.

Opening Weekend:
1 N Paul Blart: Mall Cop – Sony - $31,832,636
2 1 Gran Torino – WB - $21,979,069
3 N My Bloody Valentine 3-D - LGF – $21,241,456
4 N Notorious (2009) – FoxS - $20,497,596
5 N Hotel for Dogs – P/DW – $17,012,212

Second Weekend:
1 1 Paul Blart: Mall Cop – Sony – $21,623,182
2 N Underworld: Rise of the Lycans – SGem – $20,828,511
3 2 Gran Torino – WB - $16,244,462
4 5 Hotel for Dogs – P/DW – $12,860,944
5 10 Slumdog Millionaire – FoxS – $10,699,629

We have switched the Video Vault to a youtube clone script so now you can watch videos without having to downlad! You can still download them though, also the quality on some videos aren’t so great due to it stretching to fit the video player. You can sign up to comment and add your own videos if we don’t have it already (the videos will have to be approved first). Hope you enjoy the new video vault!

GO TO THE VIDEO VAULT

We added some high quality images from the Jay Leno Show, if you want to see the episode then go to page two of the updates. We have also added two MTV photobooth photos of Emma and her co-star Jill Hennessy from Lymelife.

Sorry these would have been added sooner but we were in the process of switching to wordpress. We still have a few things to work on so be patient with us, thanks. We haved added a photoshoot session done at the Sundance Film Festival. We have also added candids of her around Park City on day 7.