Okay, let’s make that eight (as opposed to the previous count of seven) Iraq movies with the addition of Lionsgate’s The Return, a road movie about three Iraq War veterans (played by Rachel McAdams, Tim Robbins and Michael Pena) from director and co-writer Neil Burger (The Illusionist). It only finished filming in late June, and a Lionsgate publicist just told me it’s not on the company’s upcoming release slate. Figure sometime in ’08 but forget December ’07, as the IMDB has it.

Written by Burger and Dirk Wittenborn, the story allegedly” revolves around three soldiers — Collee (McAdams), T.K. (Pena) and Cheever (Robbins) — who return from the Iraq War after suffering injuries and learn that life has moved on without them. They end up on an unexpected road trip across the U.S., with Collee on a mission to bring her boyfriend’s guitar back to his family because he saved her life, T.K. seeking confidence to face his wife after a shrapnel injury that threatens his sexual function and middle-aged Cheever planning to hit the casinos in a desperate effort to pay for his son’s college tuition.”

So the total Iraq-Afghanistan count is now twelve — eight Iraqs (The Return, In The Valley of Elah, Redacted, Stop Loss, The Hurt Locker, Imperial Life in the Emerald City, Grace is Gone and Nick Broomfield‘s Battle for Haditha), two Afghanis (Lions for Lambs, Charlie Wilson’s War) plus The Kingdom (Universal, 9.28.07) and Rendition (New Line, 10.12.07).