Cinematical

When you're the producer/director of a movie that's been widely reported as wildly over-budget, you're going to get a little testy when the release date starts to roll around. But according to Nikki Finke, Evan Almighty maker Tom Shadyac recently through threw a mega-nasty hissy fit during a meeting of Universal execs and marketing folks. The director's main gripe seems to be that Uni is scrimping on the TV advertising on Evan in a way to save some of the money that was tossed into a flick that (some say) cost over $200 million.

"I'm not seeing any ads, and I don't know why. I'm not getting answers. People are giving me information that isn't true ... I'm only hearing about all the other summer movies, and nothing about mine," is what Mr. Shadyac complained about, according to Ms. Finke's unnamed source. The filmmaker even went as far as firing his long-time marketing consultants over the issue. Sounds to me like someone's getting his "this is why the movie flopped" excuses ready.

Tom Shadyac's other movies include Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, The Nutty Professor, Liar Liar, Patch Adams, Dragonfly and Bruce Almighty. Evan Almighty, which stars Steve Carell, Morgan Freeman, Lauren Graham and more CGI animals than you've ever seen before, opens on June 22.