MOVIE buffs got a kick overnight when it was revealed they were living in the future imagined by one of their favourite films.

Yesterday's calendar date — July 5, 2010 — was said to be the target entered by Dr Emmett "Doc" Brown into the DeLorean time machine in Back to the Future.

The revelation was enough to make the film's title a trending topic on Twitter and one of the most searched-for phrases on Google.

The only problem was that the date was wrong. July 5, 2010 does not appear in any of the Back to the Future films.

The Daily What blog broke the news, with the headline "Fake Fakery Of The Day", by showing a compilation of all the dates entered into the DeLorean.

So how did everyone get it so wrong?

Rather than a deliberate hoax, the false date appears to be the product of a mistake by staff at a film magazine in the UK.

Someone at Total Film last night posted to Twitter that the date was "Future Day".

"Great Scott! It's Future Day! In Back to the Future, Doc Brown sets the time circuits for 25yrs in the future.. that day is today!," wrote @totalfilm.

About four hours later, the magazine seemed to realise its mistake and posted a sarcastic update about it.

"Many of you don't believe 5/7/10 is mentioned in Back to the Future. So here's proof we totally didn't Photoshop," it said.

It linked to what looked like a screenshot from the film, showing the DeLorean time control panel with the date July 5, 2010.

But underneath, the caption read: "We got it wrong. Apparently 5th July 2010 isn't mentioned in Back to the Future. So we went back and changed it..."

In other words, the image was digitally altered to show that date.

Read Total Film's explanation of how Twitter turned their mistake into the 'truth'

That means film fans will have to wait another few years for the next suitable "Future Day", on October 21, 2015.

That's the day the main characters find themselves on at the beginning of the second film.

However disappointed Back to the Future fans can still celebrate something about July 5.

That day is the birthday of actress Claudia Wells, who played Marty McFly's girlfriend Jennifer Parker in the first film.

Wells was replaced by Elisabeth Shue in the second two films.

This past weekend also marked the film's 25th anniversary. It was released in the US on July 3, 1985.