 When 20th Century Fox acquired the film rights to Watchmen , the comic 's writer Alan Moore was initially excited about the film adaptation . In a 1987 edition of Comics Interview , he revealed Sam Hamm , who was attached to write , visited him in Northampton for lunch and that he felt Hamm would provide an adaptation faithful to the comic 's spirit . Ultimately , Hamm 's script altered the ending , having Adrian Veidt die and Dr. Manhattan alter time so that Jon Osterman is not affected by the radiation . As a result , the remaining characters are teleported to the real world created as a result of time travel . In an interview with Variety 's Danny Graydon , during Warner Bros. ' s first possession of feature film rights for Watchmen , Moore changed his mind , adamantly opposing a film adaptation of his comic book . Moore felt that , contrary to others ’ opinion , the comic book was not cinematic . When he was approached by Terry Gilliam on how to film the comic book , Moore stated that he " didn 't think it was filmable " . Moore clarified for Graydon , " I didn 't design it to show off the similarities between cinema and comics , which are there , but in my opinion are fairly unremarkable . It was designed to show off the things that comics could do that cinema and literature couldn 't . " 
