Warner Bros’ edgy new Clockwork label led by Christian Parkes is scouring TIFF for acquisitions, fulfilling a long-held ambition by the studio’s film group co-heads Mike De Luca and Pam Abdy.
“We want to be wherever the audience is and the acquisitions space, independent space, and emerging talent space was an open lane,” De Luca told Friday’s TIFF on-stage talk ‘Betting On Cinema’.
“We want to have all these things available for talent to have a home,” he told TIFF CEO Cameron Bailey during the Dialogues on-stager. ”The dream is to create a campus effect: you come in for Clockwork and might also want do a New Line movie […] We’re adept at doing a variety of movies across a variety of budget levels and [want to] create an atmosphere for filmmakers to keep coming back.
Clockwork screened Ken Russell’s The Devils at TIFF on Thursday. The nascent slate includes upcoming trio of Ti Amo! from Sean Baker, sports drama Nasty from Mary Bronstein [If I Had Legs I’d Kick You], and Park Chan-wook’s The Brigands Of Rattlecreek.
While Warner Bros’ 2026 at the box office has thus far been lacklustre after a remarkable 2025 at the box office, the executives are confident in backing bold ideas and taking calculated risks. De Luca said, “Even the franchises have to have a degree of innovation in them. We found that with the [upcoming 2028 release] Final Destination 7. Seven!”
“I started out in independent films [at Jersey Films, which produced Reality Bites and Garden State],” said Abdy. “You can be punk rock and take real swings. We didn’t have that [kind of] label at the studio and felt and felt [Clockwork] would be a great opportunity to tell more stories.”
De Luca noted it was impossible to predict the next hit. “I don’t think you can predict what’s going to trend tomorrow,” he said. “The hedge against the unknown is embrace the unknowns; embrace what’s original, because algorithmic bullshit and predictive research and data analytics, which we all use, cannot look backwards […] Half the time the audience doesn’t know they want it until they see it.”
Abdy spoke about marketing and said, “Brand partnerships have become key in our marketing process.” Warner Bros partnered with the creative ideas social platform Pinterst for the first time on Sinners. “Pintesret reaches such a young teen demo,” she said. ”What’s happening now is for teens girls to be collaging and it felt like the perfect audience to go after. We did that with Practical Magic 2, which opens today [September 11].”
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