Robert Rodriguez unveils ‘Machete’ on a street corner at Comic-Con

Robert Rodriguez unveils ‘Machete’ at Comic-Con

SAN DIEGO — Robert Rodriguez loves Comic-Con, but the San Diego Convention Center is just too limiting. So the filmmaker decided to unveil his new movie, “Machete,” on a street corner instead.

Rodriguez showed about seven minutes of footage from the film at an outdoor party Thursday night that featured free tacos and margaritas, scantily clad dancers, a dozen tricked-out low-rider cars and a graffiti wall.

Stars Danny Trejo and Michelle Rodriguez were on hand for the celebration. The film also stars Robert De Niro, Jessica Alba, Steven Seagal, Don Johnson and Lindsay Lohan.

The seven-minute clip was sexy, bloody and action-packed. In one scene, Alba puts out an attacker’s eye with a stiletto heel. In another, Trejo’s character slices open an opponent’s stomach and rappels down a wall with his intestine.

“The human intestine is 10 times longer than the human body,” Robert Rodriguez said. “True fact.”

The writer-director said “Machete” is a film of and for the fans, who clamored for a full-length movie after seeing a trailer in 2007’s “Grindhouse.”

“I was never going to go beyond the trailer,” he said.

The film focuses on Trejo’s character, Machete, a renegade who’s fighting against corruption in the United States and Mexico. Robert Rodriguez wrote the part for Trejo, his first starring role in a 25-year career.

“No matter where you go, there’s always going to be corruption,” Robert Rodriguez said. “So you almost have to create this superhero that can solve a problem that we find unsolvable ourselves.”

“This is the first Latino superhero,” said Michelle Rodriguez, who sports an eye patch in “Machete.”

Lohan plays a pistol-packing nun in the movie. The director said her character has “a really great, surprising arc.”

“I was playing with icons a lot in this,” Robert Rodriguez said. “She was already so iconic in one way, I thought, ‘How can you play with that, play with these images in pop culture?’ And everything that’s going on with her now only fuels that even more.”

“Machete” opens in September. Comic-Con continues through Sunday.

AP Entertainment Writer Sandy Cohen is on Twitter. Follow her at twitter.com/APSandy.

Online:

www.comic-con.org

(This version CORRECTS spelling to Seagal from Segal.)