Kevin Smith is uncool.   People like him don't belong in the movie business.  If you are uncool, you should find something else to do with yourself.

Books are only cool insofar as they provide material for movie scripts.  If a book is just a book, then it is uncool. The Watchmen book was a movie script just waiting for a little polishing.   Hence, cool.

Books are inherently uncool.  Movies are supposed to be cool.  Make whatever changes are necessary to make the movie cool.  It's that simple.

AU?  WTF?