• Maximum Films International has picked up the international sales rights to the Sundance prize-winner Trouble the Water, a doc about post-Katrina New Orleans. The Toronto outfit has also picked up international rights to Shirley Barrett’s South Solitary, a period romance set to shoot later this year with Maggie Gyllenhaal and Paul Bettany, and Amy Redford’s The Guitar, starring Saffron Burrows.

On the sales side, Maximum and Echo Lake Entertainment have sold the U.K. rights to Santosh Sivan’s Before the Rain to Metrodome Distribution. The London distributor has handled such Canadian titles as Sarah Polley’s Away from Her and Deepa Mehta’s Water.

• CCI Entertainment and Scholastic Media reached a deal for the presales of the animated series Turbo Dogs to air on CBC in Canada and qubo in the U.S. The 3D toon is based on the kids book Racer Dogs by author/illustrator Bob Kolar, and may air on the CBC as early as this fall.

• Belgium and Israel have doubled up on Carl Squared. The Portfolio Entertainment-produced animated comedy has been renewed for two seasons on VRT in Belgium and one additional season on Israel’s Noga.

• Producer Nicholas Tabarrok hit pay dirt at Slamdance, arranging deals for both Hank and Mike and Crooked Lake (aka Portage). The latter was picked up by Neo Classics after winning the Kodak Vision Award, while Magnolia Pictures picked up Hank and Mike.

• Kids will soon be able to read along with Life with Derek following Shaftesbury Films’ deal with Grosset & Dunlap, a division of Penguin Young Readers Group, for a line of children’s novels based on its series. The first volume of the Derek tales will hit North American bookshelves this summer.

• Peace Arch Entertainment has signed a worldwide distribution deal with indie music producers Ole covering the music rights for all of its film and TV properties, including The Tudors and the upcoming movie Winged Creatures.

• Oasis International has closed a series of deals for Iggy Arbuckle, sending the series to TPS and Canal+ SA in France and the Cartoon Network in Korea, the Philippines, Australia and New Zealand.