Apple Original Films has landed “Connector,” a new feature that will star Academy Award-winner Brad Pitt (“F1,” “Heart of the Beast,” upcoming “The Further Mis-Adventures of Cliff Booth”), who will also serve as producer for Plan B, the company announced Thursday.
The project is set to be directed by Academy Award-nominee Darius Marder (“Sound of Metal”).
“Connector” is a 1970s’ NYC epic about a working class legend, a sky-walking ironworker who takes on forces larger than himself.
Apple Studios will serve as the studio, and Pitt, Dede Gardner and Jeremy Kleiner will produce for Plan B. Marder will also serve as producer.
The film is co-written by Marder, whose debut narrative feature “Sound of Metal” earned six Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture and Best Original Screenplay, and won Oscars for Best Sound and Best Film Editing. Darius co-wrote “Sound of Metal” with his sibling Nina Marder, from a story with Derek Cianfrance. Darius also previously co-wrote “The Place Beyond the Pines,” which earned him a Penn Literary award in 2014.
The project marks the latest collaboration for Apple Original Films and Plan B following the record-breaking and Academy Award-winning “F1,” which became the highest-grossing sports feature of all time following its release last year, and received a Best Picture nomination.
Apple Original Films will also soon release a new Mark Wahlberg-led feature, produced by Plan B, and written and directed by Stephen Chbosky. Additionally, it was recently announced that Apple Original Films landed “The Waffle House Index” with Plan B attached to produce and Inde Navarrette (“Obsession,” upcoming “X Men” film) attached to star in the lead role.
Xi Jinping says Taiwan’s ‘complete reunification’ with China will happen
November 13, 2026
Beijing (TIP): Chinese President Xi Jinping has said the tide of history cannot be stopped, while urging peaceful “reunification” with Taiwan.
Resolving the Taiwan question is an “unwavering historical mission” of China’s Communist Party, Xi said in a speech at Beijing’s Great Hall of the People on Thursday, Nov 12.
“The tide of history ??cannot be stopped,” Xi added.
“The complete reunification of the motherland must be realised, and it will certainly be realised.”
China views democratically governed Taiwan as ??its own territory, despite Taipei’s strong rejection of that claim, and has repeatedly offered a “one country, two systems” model of autonomy not supported by any major Taiwanese political party.
Xi’s comments came in a speech on the 160th birthday of revolutionary hero Sun Yat-sen, who helped lead a 1911 ??revolt that ended centuries of rule by emperors and empresses and ushered in the Republic of China.
Taiwan’s government dismissed the remarks.
Its Mainland Affairs Council said neither the government nor Taiwan’s people could accept “one country, two systems”, which would ultimately mean submitting to the Communist Party’s rule.
“As for the wording on Taiwan unification, it isn’t much different from the past,” council spokesperson Liang Wen-chieh told reporters.
Xi said China adheres to “peaceful reunification and the policy of ‘one country, two systems’” and is willing to talk to Taiwan while upholding the “one China principle”, or Beijing’s position that both sides of the Taiwan Strait are one country.
All Chinese, including those in Taiwan, should join hands to jointly oppose Taiwan independence “separatist” forces and strive for peaceful development of cross-Strait ties, Xi added. Although Xi did not mention the use of force, which China has never renounced for Taiwan, China’s military operates around the island on a daily basis and is extending its reach further into the Pacific.
Taiwan’s defence ministry said it had detected 29 Chinese military aircraft, including J-16 fighter jets and drones, carrying out a “joint combat ??readiness patrol” around Taiwan in conjunction with Chinese warships, starting on Thursday.
Xi’s speech comes a week ahead of the APEC summit in China’s southern tech hub of Shenzhen, where he is due to again meet US President Donald Trump, and also a little more than two weeks before important local elections in Taiwan.
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