Will ‘Godfather III’ Be Ready for Christmas Opening? : Movies: Coppola is racing the clock to complete the film by this weekend if Paramount is to get it to theaters for a scheduled holiday opening.

Eight weeks before the scheduled release of Francis Coppola’s “The Godfather, Part III,” the director and Paramount Pictures are still not sure if the film will be ready--despite an advertising campaign promising moviegoers and theater owners that it will open Christmas Day.

Coppola, working out of his Zoetrope Studios in San Francisco, is racing against the clock. He needs to complete the film this weekend so that final technical touches and an estimated 1,800 prints can be ready in time for the Dec. 25 release date.

“I hope that on Monday I can say goodby to it,” Coppola said Thursday, sounding more hopeful of making the date than he had in an earlier interview with Daily Variety columnist Army Archerd. In Archerd’s Thursday column, Coppola seemed to be sending the message that the film would not be ready.

After Archerd’s column appeared, he told The Times he would “love the chance to calmly show it to friends. . . . The audience is a big, important element for a director.” Coppola won’t get that chance if, as he hopes, he turns it over to Paramount early next week.

Some sources close to Paramount are less sanguine than Coppola about “Godfather’s” chances of opening at Christmas. “With a major film like that you can’t have the filmmaker saying that he didn’t have time to make it great,” said one source.

The arrival of “Godfather III” is seen as one of the biggest film events of the past decade. Coppola’s first two installments of “Godfather,” inspired by Mario Puzo’s 1969 bestseller about a Mafia family named the Corleones, won a total of nine Academy Awards and launched Coppola’s reputation as one of Hollywood’s premier filmmakers. There has been talk ever since of a third installment, but until last year Coppola resisted.

Sources close to the studio say that Paramount--anticipating that the film may have to be delayed until Easter--has postponed commitments on most of its marketing until a final decision on the release date. “They’re all prepared to go either way,” one source said of Paramount’s marketing department.

Paramount officials, contacted Thursday, would only say that studio executives and Coppola will view a final cut this weekend and make a decision by early next week. “We want it to be the best it can be,” one studio official said.

Paramount already announced one date change on “Godfather III”--from Nov. 21 to Christmas Day--after Coppola decided he needed to shoot additional scenes last month. An Easter release would prevent the film from qualifying for this year’s Academy Awards, and could hurt its chances at the Oscars next year because films released early in the year typically don’t get as much Academy attention.

A delay also would prove embarrassing to magazines and other media with major coverage of the film timed to coincide with a Christmas release. It is the subject of a cover story in the current issue of Life magazine, which features a photo of star Al Pacino and the line, “After 16 years, an offer no moviegoer can refuse.”

A change in release date could also affect business for video dealers, who are stocking up on cassettes of the first two “Godfather” films. Paramount Home Video plans to launch a promotional campaign touting the offerings. And there will be a new push on “The Godfather Epic,” a 400-minute chronological version of the two films edited by Coppola and first released on video in November, 1981.

The three video releases have sold more than 1 million cassettes, putting the “Godfather” series among Paramount’s top-10 selling videos.

Box-office business for the $55-million “Godfather III” won’t necessarily be hurt should the film miss the lucrative Christmas market. Paramount released “The Hunt for Red October” early last March, and that film accrued more than $120 million in ticket sales. But if “Godfather III” isn’t released until Easter--March 31--its theatrical run will bump up against stiff summer competition.

Taking “Godfather III” out of the competitive Christmas lineup would be a boon to other movies vying for a piece of the holiday business--by most accounts, this Christmas will be one of the most competitive seasons in recent years. An estimated 1,800 theaters that have committed to “Godfather” would open up, providing new space to films arriving in early and mid-December, including Universal’s “Havana” and “Kindergarten Cop,” MGM/UA’s “Russia House,” Orion’s “Mermaids,” Fox’s “Edward Scissorhands” and Warner’s “The Bonfire of the Vanities.”

“Everybody is waiting to see what happens,” said Tom Sherak, executive vice president of 20th Century Fox. “You’re going to see a lot of jockeying (once Paramount makes its decision).”

During the next couple of days, Coppola said, he will be doing minor tinkering. “It’s like a building,” he said. “We have to put window sills in it.”

Pat H. Broeske contributed to this story.