theatrically in the North American region, as well as in the home video market. In 1984, The Cannon Group has signed a deal with distributor UGC for an exclusive five-year pact, with UGC handling French theatrical distribution and video rights of Cannon's upcoming feature films. Also that year, on May 22, 1984, Cannon Group had acquired and absorbed Kenneth Rive's Gala Films, which was absorbed into Cannon Group's U.K. distribution arm. On June 25, 1985, Cannon Films bought out the rights to produce future films based on the comic book character Superman from the Salkinds, and had a distribution assignment with Warner Bros. for a 1987 release. Also that year, Cannon had to set up a French office by November, through the subsidiary Cannon France, and has plans to be the largest French distribution chain by next year. 1986–1989: Later years By 1986, output reached an apex with 43 films in one year. Golan remained chairman of the board, while Globus served as president. In 1986, Cannon attempted to produce film adaptations of the stage plays Zorba and American Buffalo, but these films were never materialized. On April 23, 1986, Cannon Television, the television division of the Cannon Group, had eyeing the network television, syndication and cable markets, with action series being offered to dominate Cannon's television slate, and offered television versions of the Cannon hit features The Delta Force and American Ninja. On April 30, 1986, Cannon had won the bid to distribute Roman Polanski's newest film Pirates, which was set for debut on July 11, 1986, to 2,000 screens, which had beaten Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and De Laurentiis Entertainment Group. That year, the company attempted plans to do a series of fairy tales to follow Rumpelstiltskin with a total of 12 fairy tale films planned by the studio as part of the Cannon Movie Tales series, but Cannon wound up releasing a few of the fairy tales. Film critic Roger Ebert said of Golan-Globus in 1987, "no other production organization in the world today—certainly not any of the seven Hollywood 'majors'—has taken more chances with serious, marginal films than Cannon." That year, Cannon gained its greatest artistic success: its 1986 Dutch production The Assault won the 1987 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film and a Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Language Film. Meanwhile, Otello, based on the opera of the same name, also received a Golden Globe nomination