New role for Arnold: star of video game

"Pumping Iron," the video game?

It could happen, according to bodybuilder-turned-actor-turned-video-game-enthusiast Arnold Schwarzenegger.

The action star is promoting his new movie, "Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines," due in theaters July 2. He also stars in an Atari video game based on the movie that will be released this fall.

It's the first time Schwarzenegger has contributed his likeness and voice to a video game.

"I've seen in the past other images of me and some were bogus, I would say," Schwarzenegger said Monday at an Atari party in Los Angeles. "This is the first time the movements, the facial expressions don't look like I can't recognize myself."

Now that he's indicated his willingness to appear in video games, the 55-year-old said companies are approaching him with ideas, including a pitch to make a game based on the film that launched his career, the 1977 weightlifting documentary "Pumping Iron."

"That is actually a great idea," Schwarzenegger said. "Two companies came to me with that idea to make it interactive, to have pose-offs."

A game might show a computerized bodybuilder getting bigger, depending on the training techniques a player chooses. Players could also choose poses for the final competition, as well as music their bodybuilder would pose to.

"It can be something very educational but at the same time inspirational for kids to work out rather than become a couch potato," he said.