Schwarzenegger plugs Terminator 3 at Cannes

Arnold Schwarzenegger was one of the main attractions at Cannes, though his sci-fi sequel Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines was still under wraps. With thousands of journalists and celebrity-watchers on hand, Schwarzenegger and his cast mates used Cannes to build the buzz on the flick that opens July 2.

The Croisette, the main drag through Cannes, was closed to traffic Saturday in front of the ritzy Carlton Hotel, where hundreds of photographers and fans gathered to watch Schwarzenegger mug for the cameras with some of the robots featured in the movie.

Schwarzenegger promised the crowd the movie would deliver the "best visual effects you've ever seen in your life, and incredible stunts."

The only actual footage from the film was a seven-minute reel of clips shown to journalists. But Schwarzenegger, whose first trip to the festival was in 1977 to promote his bodybuilding movie Pumping Iron, said he has come back many times to plug movies that were not playing the festival, including Terminator 2: Judgment Day.

"The promotion that you can get here, it's staggering," Schwarzenegger told The Associated Press. "To have that many journalists gathered from all over the world and that many photographers. You have so many messengers here to get the message out."

Such publicity stunts have become common at Cannes, where promotional blitzes for unfinished films often upstage movies actually competing in the festival.

Two years ago, New Line Cinema fanned anticipation for the first chapter of The Lord of the Rings trilogy by showing about 25 minutes of footage to journalists and bringing in cast and crew for interviews at Cannes. Miramax did the same last year with about 20 minutes from Gangs of New York.

Terminator 3 director Jonathan Mostow said the full movie was not ready in time for Cannes and that he and his collaborators decided against showing more than just a few minutes of footage.

"You can take a crummy movie and cut together a great 20-minute product reel, but people are wise to that," Mostow said. "The fact is, we believe we've made a movie that works. We believe we don't really need to try to trick anybody. We believe that people are going to come on opening weekend and like what they see."

The footage shown at Cannes included several action scenes, including a wildly destructive car, truck and motorcycle chase and a battle in a restroom in which Schwarzenegger and a female killing machine (Kristanna Loken) duke it out with porcelain fixtures.

Terminator 3 picks up years after Terminator 2, in which Schwarzenegger's cyborg prevented a more sophisticated terminator from killing John Connor, the boy who would grow up to be humanity's saviour from a race of machines.

This time, Schwarzenegger plays another benevolent terminator sent back from the future to protect the grown-up Connor from Loken's character. Nick Stahl plays Connor, taking over the role played by Edward Furlong, while Claire Danes co-stars as a woman hurled into the battle against the female terminator.

Cast members are under a gag order not to reveal plot details until closer to the release. Danes said that makes it difficult "to talk about a movie people haven't seen yet and that we're not allowed to really talk about . . . I haven't even been able to tell my friends how the movie ends."

Schwarzenegger closed his appearance before the Croisette crowd with a reprise of his most famous line from the first two Terminator movies.

"Remember, as I always say," Schwarzenegger said, "I'll be back."