Emily in
Paris star Lily Collins to play Audrey Hepburn in film about Breakfast at
Tiffany’s
Collins
‘honoured and ecstatic’ to play Hepburn, in film charting the dramatic making
of the 1961 romantic comedy
Sian Cain
Mon 23
Feb 2026 23.58 GMT
Lily
Collins, the star of Netflix hit Emily in Paris, has been cast to play Audrey
Hepburn in a new film about the making of her 1961 romantic comedy Breakfast at
Tiffany’s.
The
as-yet-untitled film will be based on Sam Wasson’s nonfiction book Fifth
Avenue, 5 AM: Audrey Hepburn, Breakfast at Tiffany’s and the Dawn of the Modern
Woman, with a script written by Alena Smith, creator of the Apple TV series
Dickinson. No director has been announced yet.
Collins,
the daughter of musician Phil Collins, shared her excitement in a statement on
Instagram.
“It’s
with almost 10 years of development and a lifetime of admiration and adoration
for Audrey that I’m finally able share this,” she wrote. “Honoured and ecstatic
don’t begin to express how I feel … ”
Breakfast
at Tiffany’s was initially a novella by Truman Capote, published in 1958. Set
in the 1940s, the story is narrated by a struggling writer who moves into a new
apartment in New York and befriends his glamorous neighbour Holly Golightly, an
“American geisha” who gets by socialising with wealthy men.
The 1961
film was a very loose adaptation of Capote’s book, transposing the story to
1960 and turning the novella’s unnamed gay narrator into a straight man who
falls in love with Golightly.
Capote
wanted Marilyn Monroe to play Golightly and lobbied the studio, Paramount, to
hire her, but Monroe was under contract with Twentieth Century Fox at the time.
She was reportedly advised to pass because the character would be bad for her
image, with her acting coach, Paula Strasberg, saying: “Marilyn Monroe will not
play a lady of the evening.”
Shirley
MacLaine and Kim Novak both turned the role down, and Hepburn was cast against
Capote’s wishes. “Paramount double-crossed me in every way and cast Audrey,” he
later complained. “It was the most miscast film I’ve ever seen.”
Ahead of
the film’s release, Paramount’s publicity department desperately attempted to
reframe Golightly as being as far from a sex worker as could be. “Since Miss
Audrey Hepburn has never played any part that has suggested she was anything
but pure, polite and possibly a princess, a hard look at Miss Golightly is in
order,” one press release read. Another read: “The star is Audrey Hepburn, not
Tawdry Hepburn.”
Breakfast
at Tiffany’s received critical acclaim, making US$14m at the global box office
– around $152m today – and winning two Academy Awards: best score for composer
Henry Mancini and best song for Moon River, performed by Hepburn in the film.
The
upcoming movie starring Collins will be the “first complete account of the
making of the film” and will cover drama from preproduction to on-set
disasters, such as when one crew member was reportedly nearly electrocuted
during the film’s famous opening sequence outside the flagship Tiffany & Co
store on Fifth Avenue.
Casting
for other characters in the film, including Capote and Breakfast at Tiffany’s
director Blake Edwards, have yet to be announced.
Hepburn
has previously been played by Jennifer Love Hewitt in the 2000 TV movie The
Audrey Hepburn Story. Rooney Mara was briefly attached to a Hepburn biopic
directed by Luca Guadagnino, but it was called off in 2023.
Fifth
Avenue, 5 A.M.: Audrey Hepburn, Breakfast at Tiffany's and the Dawn of the
Modern Woman.
Fifth
Avenue, 5 A.M.: Audrey Hepburn, Breakfast at Tiffany's and the Dawn of the
Modern Woman is a non-fiction book by Sam Wasson that chronicles the making of
the 1961 film Breakfast at Tiffany's and its profound impact on 20th-century
culture. The book explores how the film, led by Audrey Hepburn, transformed the
image of the "bad girl" into a modern heroine and paved the way for
social changes regarding fashion, sex, and female independence.
Book
Overview
Central
Theme: Wasson examines how the film served as a bridge between the conservative
Eisenhower era and the modern 1960s, turning the "not-so-virginal"
Holly Golightly into a cultural icon of autonomy.
Production
Insights: The book details the challenges of adapting Truman Capote's novella,
which featured a lead character who was a call girl, into a Hollywood-approved
romantic comedy during a time of strict censorship.
Iconic
Figures: The narrative features a cast of real-life characters, including
author Truman Capote, director Blake Edwards, costume designer Edith Head,
fashion designer Hubert de Givenchy, and composer Henry Mancini.
Key
Revelations: According to the New York Public Library Shop, Capote originally
wanted Marilyn Monroe for the lead role, and the film's famous happy ending was
just one of two versions shot.
Cultural
Impact and Legacy
Fashion:
The book highlights how the "little black dress" designed by Givenchy
became a symbol of self-sufficiency and mysterious power, moving away from the
"pastel" aesthetic of the 1950s.
Social
Change: Reviewers on Goodreads note that the film was a landmark for depicting
a woman having sex without being "punished" by the narrative's end, a
radical departure for the time.
Modern
Influence: Wasson argues that modern cultural touchstones like Sex and the City
owe their existence to the path cleared by Breakfast at Tiffany's.
Upcoming
Film: As of
February 2026, a movie based on Sam Wasson's book is in development.
Cast:
Lily Collins is set to star as Audrey Hepburn and will also serve as a
producer.
Production
Team: The screenplay is being written by Alena Smith (creator of Dickinson),
with production by Imagine Entertainment.
No comments:
Post a Comment