Apple is going back to the actor behind its biggest box office hit. Brad Pitt is set to star in Connector, a new Apple Original Films drama directed by Darius Marder, the filmmaker behind Sound of Metal. The project was reported this week, and Apple TV’s official account has since acknowledged it, which is about as close to confirmation as Apple usually gets at this stage.
Details are scarce. The film is set in 1970s New York and follows a working-class ironworker with a near-mythical reputation for walking the city’s high steel, who ends up fighting forces much bigger than himself. There’s no word yet on the supporting cast, a production start date, a release window or whether Connector is headed for cinemas first.
The director is the interesting part. Marder’s Sound of Metal, about a drummer losing his hearing, was a small and intensely personal film that earned six Oscar nominations and won two. Connector is his first feature since then, and pairing a director known for restrained character work with one of Hollywood’s biggest stars suggests something closer to an awards drama than a blockbuster. A period story about a blue-collar figure in a gritty 1970s New York fits that reading.
The partnership itself makes commercial sense. F1 The Movie, which Pitt led, became Apple’s most successful film by a wide margin, grossing more than $600 million worldwide. That was the first clear sign that Apple’s film strategy could work at the box office, not just as a way to fill a subscription library.
Pitt’s history with Apple hasn’t been entirely smooth. Wolfs, his 2024 crime comedy with George Clooney, was originally planned for a wide theatrical release, but Apple shrank that to a limited run shortly before launch and sent the film to streaming. The film did well on Apple TV, but the late change frustrated people who had signed on expecting a proper cinema release. F1’s success seems to have repaired whatever damage that caused.
That history makes Connector’s release plan the most important unanswered question. Apple has shifted between treating films as theatrical events and using them mainly to drive streaming subscriptions. A Pitt-led prestige drama from an Oscar-nominated director looks well suited to cinemas and an awards campaign, but Apple hasn’t said which route it will take.