It’s a movie that’s been waiting to hit screens across America for almost two years, it stars two of Hollywood’s biggest stars — and it opens tomorrow.

You guessed it: Curtis Hanson’s Lucky You.

The Drew Barrymore and Eric Bana-starring drama is being released tomorrow after sitting on shelves for about two years, reportedly because of a decline in the popularity of poker. Evidently the studio bosses behind Lucky You thought that adding insult to injury would be the strongest strategy for the film; with Spider-Man 3 opening the same day, it’s all but assured to be on DVD before I write my next column.

While nothing could stand a chance in the face of the juggernaut franchise on opening weekend, the likely demise of yet another Hanson film indicates a larger problem for the well-respected but generally unrecognized director: The poor guy can’t get a break.

A decade ago, it certainly didn’t seem that way. After directing a few popcorn potboilers (The Hand That Rocks the Cradle and The River Wild), Hanson hit it big with L.A. Confidential, the movie that got him an Oscar for co-writing the script, and one of the greatest movies of that decade.

Knocking that one out of the ballpark, he did it yet again with 2000’s Wonder Boys, an adaptation of the Michael Chabon novel that masters its dry, deadpan wit like few other movies have. And no one saw it, missing not only Michael Douglas’ best performance in years, but proof that Katie Holmes had talent before she started her full-time acting job.

Since then, Hanson has taken to “genre films” for which he seems entirely unsuited and has surprised — once again — those who actually see them. 8 Mile went far beyond being just another boost to Eminem’s popularity, and In Her Shoes turned a popular piece of “chick lit” into a non-gooey, refreshingly unsentimental movie about sisterhood and family.

It might be too lofty a pronouncement, but Hanson has become a sort of Howard Hawks of modern moviemaking. Hawks made his name in the 1930s and ’40s with genre films ranging from screwball comedies to Westerns to gumshoe flicks — his only directorial stamp being his variety.

With scarcely a decade of notoriety behind him, Hanson is headed down a similar road, so much so that I’m going into Lucky You tomorrow with the blind faith that he can turn what looks promising into something truly remarkable.

It wouldn’t be the first time.