Even before the skeptical documentary "Climate Hustle" hits U.S. theaters Monday, it already has unsettled the climate change debate.

Weather Channel founder John Coleman rushed to the defense of the film, which challenges the catastrophic climate change narrative, after "science guy" Bill Nye slammed it in a clip released over the weekend as "not in our national interest and the world's interest."

"I have always been amazed that anyone would pay attention to Bill Nye, a pretend scientist in a bow tie," Mr. Coleman said Saturday on the website Climate Depot.

"As a man who has studied the science of meteorology for over 60 years and received the [American Meteorological Society] Meteorologist of the Year award, I am totally offended that Nye gets the press and media attention he does," Mr. Coleman said. "And I am rooting for the 'Climate Hustle' film to become a huge hit — bigger than 'An Inconvenient Truth' by Al Gore."