All Shook Up

Seismologists and scientists are up in arms over NBC's upcoming May sweeps miniseries "10.5."

The longform depicts an epic earthquake that takes out most of California, causing a massive tidal wave to cover land all the way to Barstow. In the movie, scientists set off five atomic explosions to fuse the San Andreas fault, to no avail.

Sounds like trashy fun, like the equally horrid/cheesy L.A.-set disaster flicks "Earthquake" and "Volcano." ("Volcano" was recently on HBO, and I got sucked in -- it's fun to see the very street I work on covered in lava and volcanic ash. At the same time, I was reminded what a terrible, terrible movie it truely is.)

Scientists got a sneak peak at "10.5," and most of them laughed it off. But others pointed out the movie was so grossly inaccurate, they just couldn't enjoy it. For starters, a 10.5 magnitude earthquake could never happen here, they said.

Of course, the "10.5" producers plead guilty: They didn't exactly do their homework while drafting the movie:

Reports the L.A. Times: The executive producer of the miniseries, Howard Braunstein, acknowledges that the program plays loose with seismological facts.

Asked whether he had consulted scientists about the project, he responded: "Not really. We went on the Internet for backup research."

The city of Seattle is even more miffed. The movie's opening moments include an earthquake that topples the Space Needle. It's bugging enough people that the City of Seattle's Emergency Management website urges people to consult "credible scientific information" after watching "10.5."