 Gordon and Silver moved the project to Warner Bros. , where Terry Gilliam was attached to direct . Unsatisfied with how Hamm 's script fleshed out the characters , Gilliam brought in Charles McKeown to rewrite it . The second draft , which was credited to Gilliam , Warren Skaaren , and Hamm rather than McKeown , used the character Rorschach 's journal as a voice @-@ over , and restored scenes from the comic book that Hamm had removed . According to Watchmen artist Dave Gibbons , filming was to take place at Pinewood Studios . Silver wanted to cast Arnold Schwarzenegger as Dr. Manhattan . Because both Gilliam and Silver 's previous films , The Adventures of Baron Munchausen and Die Hard 2 respectively , went over budget , they were only able to raise $ 25 million for the film — a quarter of the necessary budget . As a result , Gilliam abandoned the project , and ultimately decided that Watchmen was unfilmable . Gilliam explained , " Reducing [ the story ] to a two or two @-@ and @-@ a @-@ half hour film [ ... ] seemed to me to take away the essence of what Watchmen is about . " When Warner Bros. dropped the project , Gordon invited Gilliam back to helm the film independently . The director again declined , believing that the comic book would be better directed as a five @-@ hour miniseries . 
