Josh Hartnett is back, and he's pumped about it.

The Minnesota-grown movie star was last seen in a major role two years ago in the artsy thriller "Wicker Park," and he hasn't had major billing in a big-studio production in the three years since he costarred in "Hollywood Homicide."

Not that he completely disappeared. After taking a short sabbatical, he was in last year's "Sin City," but the actors were digitalized into quasi-comic-book characters, and his brief screen time barely exceeded cameo status. He also starred in an indie film that was slated for release last year, but ran into post-production political issues -- in which he was a major player, but more on that later -- and is still sitting in the distributor's warehouse.

Ah, but 2006 is going to be different. He can feel it. And it feels good.

"In terms of my career, I think this is the best position I've been at," he said during a phone call to talk about "Lucky Number Slevin," a cheeky film noir thriller that opens Friday and marks the next phase of his life as an actor.

After "Wicker Park" was done, "I took some time off and went back to Minnesota to get away from the rat race of Hollywood," said Hartnett, who currently splits his time between the Twin Cities and New York. "And I think it was the best thing I could have done. In Hollywood, they're always trying to put you in molds, and this gave me the chance to break free of that mold."

Extended out-of-town vacations are rare in the film business, where people take the old saw "out of sight, out of mind" very seriously. A-list actors fret about their visibility, worried that if they don't keep their names and faces in the limelight they will fall out of the studios' consciousness and off the list of stars who are offered blockbusters.

Hartnett, on the other hand, intentionally removed his name from that list.

"It's not like it was before, when I was getting offered roles in 'Pearl Harbor' and 'Superman [Returns],' " a project he turned down three years ago (and is scheduled for release this summer with relative unknown Brandon Routh in the lead role).

"That means that I'm not getting offered loads of cash, either. But I am getting offered interesting roles and the chance to play opposite some great actors. And that's what I've always wanted."

Case in point: Morgan Freeman and Ben Kingsley play major supporting roles in "Lucky Number Slevin." Hartnett said one of his most nervous days as an actor came the morning of a scene involving just him and the two Oscar winners.

"All I was trying to do was not be a black hole in the center of the scene," he said. "But that was what I was looking for, the challenge of living up to great performances and hoping that someone will at least notice that I'm in the scene, too."

The next generation

Director Paul McGuigan, who also helmed "Wicker Park," said Hartnett never had anything to worry about.

"It's nice to see Josh not getting cast for roles just because of his looks," he said. "I'm not putting down his looks, I'm just saying that I didn't cast him because of them. I did it because of his craft.

"It's great to see guys like Josh and Jake Gyllenhaal and Heath Ledger finally get the attention they deserve. They are the next generation of great actors."

When it comes to working with legendary talents, Hartnett is just getting started. Later this year, we'll see him starring in "The Black Dahlia," a crime thriller directed by Brian De Palma and featuring yet another Oscar winner, Hilary Swank.

"It's got a budget of $65 million," which puts it in a league with studio releases, "but it was done completely independently," Hartnett said.