According to Palladium Books, Jerry Bruckheimer, who is producing a major motion picture based on the Rifts role-playing game, has hired Academy Award-winning screenwriter David Franzoni, who wrote the screenplay for Gladiator, to fashion a screenplay base for the film.  Bruckheimer, who optioned Rifts last year (see 'Disney, Bruckheimer Option Rifts'), is a very busy producer with many irons in many fires, but the assignment of a topnotch writer to this project is a good sign.