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Arnold Schwarzenegger made a surprise appearance at the 2002 Comic Con International, much to the delight of a standing room only crowd. After the thunderous applause died down, Arnold and "Terminator 3" director, Jonathan Mostow, showed the crowd a sneak peek at the franchise's third edition.

Despite being in the middle of filming, Mostow and Schwarzenegger told the crowd of fanatics they were both pleased to be able to give them a glimpse at the project. Acknowledging the importance of fans to the "Terminator" series, Mostow said the entire cast and crew are working on making this "Terminator" as original and fresh as the previous two. Mostow also explained prior to showing the film clip, "We haven't done the video effects yet to show you. We also worked really hard to keep this a secret. We've been religious to keep these things a secret. The footage can't give anything away and we don't have the visual effects yet - obviously there's a lot we haven't shot yet."

Before the clip, Schwarzenegger worked the podium like a pro. He recalled going to a comic book convention as a child in Austria - a convention with just 28 people in attendance. Facing the Comic Con crowd, Arnold enthused about being able to share "Terminator 3" with some of what he called "the biggest and best fans we have." Arnold also stated that he's very excited to be back, naming his "Terminator" character the role he always looks the most forward to playing time and again.

Schwarzenegger also showed off his comedic side, transforming from an action star into a stand up comic without missing a beat. After Mostow made a point of keeping the "Terminator 3" plot secret, Arnold got the audience worked up when he said, "I can't reveal anything of the plot but I've got to tell you a little bit of it. This is a really scary plot that we have this time. I'm coming back again from the future and arriving at the present in order to stop a very dangerous conspiracy - Enron. And, of course, the other thing that I can tell you is that our female Terminator is all made out of artificial parts. Every single part of her is artificial - just like any Hollywood actress."

On a more serious note, Schwarzenegger described working on "Terminator 3" saying, "Let me tell you that it's the most extraordinary experience that I've ever had. First of all, working with such talented people as we have on the set, the actresses and the actors, and working again with the special effects and visual effects with this new dimension and new kind of technology that we have now available is spectacular. It is a lot of work. I'm working my butt off, but as you know I'm also getting paid (laughing). But it's also a great pleasure to work with such a talented man, this director, Jonathan Mostow. He's fantastic."

After showing the footage, Arnold and director Jonathan Mostow answered a few questions posed by members of the Comic Con crowd:

Question: You aren't the original director of the "Terminator" movies. Are you going to ruin this like they ruined "Batman?"
Mostow: I'll answer that serious question with a serious answer. You'll never hear me say anything but that the first two "Terminator" movies were great. I thought the first "Terminators" were great and I'm a fan of the franchise. I'm making the movie that, as a fan of the franchise, I'd like to see as the third installment. I have nothing but respect for the movies that have come before me and [for] James Cameron. I'm just hoping to make a movie that the audiences are going to find and is worthy of the [being the] third chapter.

Question: What's it like to be the director for this movie and how were you chosen?
Mostow: I don't really know why I was chosen. It was sort of like winning the lottery I guess you'd have to say. It kind of fell out of the sky for me one day. It took me a couple of weeks just to get my head around the possibility of doing it. The more I thought about it, the more I realized what was so cool about doing the sequel was that most sequels are just made so that the studio can make more money. Unlike most sequels that are rushed out a couple of years after the previous one, it's been 12 years since the last movie. These characters, John Connor and the different characters from the story, have evolved to a different place in their lives and that's really interesting for me as a storyteller to get into.

Question: Are we ever going to see a "Conan 3?"
Schwarzenegger: I hope there'll be a "Conan 3" because I enjoyed the first one and the second one. But this is not the time now because the project is at Warner Bros. right now. The script has been written by John Milius but we're just waiting for them to give the okay to do the movie. But hey, I'm looking forward to it because I think it's a great franchise and I think it's a great character to play.

Question: I know you're supposed to say "Terminator," but what's your favorite movie that you've done?
Schwarzenegger: It's a very difficult kind of question to answer because I don't really have a favorite movie. Each movie provides a certain kind of joy to make. I think that when you think about "Kindergarten Cop" or "Twins," these are two different kinds of movies, which were fun because they were funny and with Danny DeVito you always have a great time. He cooks you pasta, you drink wine, and you have to smoke three stogies every day (laughing). He was fun and it was a fun project but at the same time I also enjoyed making "Total Recall," which was a very, very tough movie to make. I had a great time doing the "Terminator" movies, which were very tough because there's so much night shooting it made it very difficult. We had stunts and visual effects and special effects make-up. Right now we're going through a scene where I'm in there [working with special effects make-up] for five hours a day. So it's not always fun.

But it is a joy to do these movies and work with great directors, and working with a script that's very well written. At this point it's very hard to say what was the most fun. What is the definition of fun at any given moment? To me it's fun to have a movie come out and make $500 million worldwide. It's not fun to get beat up by some creature, or be in "Predator" and freeze my butt off.

I think in general what I do with my life, everything that I do I have fun - or otherwise I don't do. Every movie that I made, I had some fun. Every work that I do, whether it's working with the Special Olympians - I have fun.

Question: What's going on with "Doc Savage?"
Schwarzenegger: Beats me. I really don't know. Frank Darabont wrote a fantastic script for "Doc Savage" and Warner Bros. looked over the budget and said it's going to cost $220 million to make. I think that right now they are a little bit shy about making this kind of movie because it costs that much money. Maybe someday we will do this movie when there is more money available in the industry or maybe when they can cut down the budget. I really don't know.