Well, Hollywood is finally doing it. They’re going to make a movie about the coolest masked hero of all time — the Green Hornet.

And what makes him the coolest hero of all time, you ask? Because, in his real life, he had the coolest job anybody could have — that’s right, he was a newspaper editor.

The Green Hornet’s secret identity was Britt Reid, dashing young editor and publisher of the Sentinel.

What makes him different than Batman or Spider-Man or anybody else who wears a mask is that the Green Hornet fought crime by pretending to be a criminal and fighting the mob by their own rules.

Only his right-hand man, Kato, knew who he really was.

Anyway, Mirimax is making a big-budget feature film on the journalist/crimefighter.

Thirtysomethings may remember the TV show with Van Williams and a very young Bruce Lee in the role that made him a star.

But chances are the older folks of the Valley remember the old radio show starring Gordon Jones in the 1930s, with its opening line: He hunts the biggest of all game — public enemies that even the G-men cannot reach — the Green Hornet!

The character was sort of a latter-day Lone Ranger. In fact, Britt Reid was supposed to be the great-nephew of John Reid, the Lone Ranger. He rode around in his car, the Black Beauty, and took on the mob in many different non-lethal ways.

A script is being written by Kevin Smith, the guy who made the Jay and Silent Bob movies.

Of course, it’s not unusual for a super hero’s secret identity to be some guy who works for a newspaper. Superman was really mild-mannered reporter Clark Kent. Spider-Man was really freelance news photographer Peter Parker. And Captain Marvel was cub reporter Billy Batson.

Each of those characters was created at a time when journalists had a lot more respect than they do these days. Everybody read the paper and everybody trusted Edward R. Murrow.

It’ll be interesting to see what Kevin Smith does with the character. Like everything else, it will probably be modernized to appeal to today’s audiences, complete with explosions, car chases and theatrical martial arts.

To me it will always be film noir — a guy with his own code of honor rubbing elbows with the denizens of the underworld, only to sting them when the time is right.

It’s vigilante justice at its 1930s best, when a new breed of criminal found his way around the law.

Let’s roll, Kato!