TV Quake Film Has Experts Shaking -- Heads

Associated Press

"In NBC's disaster epic '10.5,' massive quakes topple the Golden Gate Bridge, send the Pacific Ocean sloshing over Los Angeles, swallow trucks and chase trains. An attempt to stop the temblors by fusing the San Andreas fault with a series of atomic explosions fails.

. . .

Howard Braunstein, executive producer of the miniseries, acknowledged that the film is meant as 'fun entertainment' and plays loose with the facts."

All well and good. But this is the part I like:

"Asked whether he consulted scientists in developing the project, Braunstein said: 'Not really. We went on the Internet for backup research.'"

Glad to see NBC uses the same time-tested research techniques utilized by 8th graders everywhere. Not that real movies are much better (Sam Houston was at the Alamo? I guess we don't remember it as well as we thought!).

The real question is: why bother? Perhaps this internet research consisted of going on imdb to find actors and actresses who haven't worked in a while, but were once mildly famous. Kim Delaney and Beau Bridges seem to fit the bill nicely.

All in all, I'm anxiously awaiting '10.5,' but in the same way I anxiously await a real earthquake.