Columbia Pictures is planning yet another superhero movie. ComingSoon says they’ve snatched up the rights to The Green Hornet.

Long time readers of this site will remember that Green Hornet was the superhero movie Kevin Smith flirted with directing before taking an exit ramp to more familiar territory and directing Clerks II instead. This time it’s Neal H. Mortiz pushing the project. He’s producing the film, no word yet on who will direct.

With Spider-Man likely to take something of a break after Spider-Man 3, I guess Columbia decided they needed another superhero franchise to hang their hat on. Green Hornet is hardly Spidey, but it’s a classic, old school superhero character from the dawn of the whole hero obsession. The character first showed up in the 30s as a radio program from the creator of the Lone Ranger. The series had a long run staying on the air until 1952 when, presumably, people started buying televisions. The character eventually made the jump to comics, and later a television series on ABC with Van Williams as the Green Hornet and the great Bruce Lee as Kato.

The Green Hornet is about a newspaper man named Britt Reid who saves the life of a Japanese man named Kato. Kato puts his martial arts skills to use and together they form a crime-fighting duo after Britt witnesses a mob hit and decides he needs a mask to protect his identity. The Green Hornet is kind of like Batman, in that he uses gadgets rather than say, actual superpowers.