SAN DIEGO: Science fiction movies should be allowed only one major transgression of the laws of physics, says a US professor who has won backing from a number of his peers after creating a set of guidelines for Hollywood.

The proposals are intended to curb the film industry's worst abuses of science by confining scriptwriters to plotlines that embrace the suspension of disbelief but stop short of demanding it in every scene.

The guidelines are by Sidney Perkowitz, a professor of physics at Emory University and a member of the Science and Entertainment Exchange, an advisory body run by the US National Academy of Sciences.