DENNIS DUGAN / DIRECTOR

The unlikely adoption comedy “Big Daddy” wasn’t director Dennis Dugan’s first with juvenile talent. He’d worked with Adam Sandler before on “Happy Gilmore.” Dugan, 44, has also directed “Beverly Hills Ninja,” “Problem Child” and TV’s “Ally McBeal,” “NYPD Blue” and “Chicago Hope,” and has acting credits ranging from “Hill Street Blues” to “Parenthood.”

SENSE OF HUMOR: “I’m reading an article in GQ where this guy derides all comedies today--not just the people who make them, but the audience as a ‘human wave of idiots.’ That’s strange to me. If you’re doing something that people enjoy seeing and laugh, I don’t see the problem.”

KINDER, GENTLER: “Truthfully, there was no attempt to shift Adam’s image with this. Each piece of art has its own rules, and I feel this one we adhered to its rules. If it’s perceived as being a leap for him, well, the guy’s enormously talented. It’s just the next step in his evolution.”

AHEAD OF THE CURVE: “The Farrelly brothers are such unique voices that it’s hard for anyone to rip them off. They’re just damn funny. By the time you rip them off, they’ve jumped to another stratosphere as far as pushing the edge.”

SANDLER’S NEXT: “Adam’s got a really cool movie coming up with New Line--’Little Nicky,’ about the son of the Devil.

It’s very funny. He’s writing it now.”

TOUCHING THAT DIAL: “I directed a pilot for a show called ‘Shasta McNasty’ that got picked up by UPN and starts in September. Sort of hip-hop meets ‘The Monkees.’ Generally crazy show. I’m also consulting producer on it.”

ONE TO WATCH: “The guy who wrote ‘Shasta McNasty,’ Jeff Easton--this guy is crazed and funny and completely out there. He did a movie, ‘Inconvenienced,’ that isn’t out yet. But he’s going to explode.”

WHAT I REALLY WANT TO DO IS DIRECT: “I only act now under protest. The last sort of substantial thing I did in movies was ‘Parenthood.’ Ronnie Howard and I are old friends and I’d work with him again.”

AUTONOMY: “My wife and I have formed [a production and development company] Art Echo Inc., with her doing development. Coming off a movie like this with a really good cast and star and studio, I don’t want to become a victim of the pool of scripts out there. I’d love to have my fate in my own hands.”