Moon River (Song)

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"Moon River" is a song composed by Henry Mancini with lyrics by Johnny Mercer. It was originally performed by Audrey Hepburn in the 1961 film Breakfast at Tiffany's, winning an Academy Award for Best Original Song. The song also won the 1962 Grammy Awards for Record of the Year and Song of the Year. In 1999, Mancini's recording was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.

The song has been recorded by many other artists. It became the theme song for Andy Williams, who first recorded it in 1962 (and performed it at the Academy Awards ceremony that year). He sang the first eight bars of the song at the beginning of each episode of his eponymous television show and named his production company and venue in Branson, Missouri, after it; his autobiography is called "Moon River" and Me.

Williams' version was never released as a single, but it charted as an LP track that he recorded for Columbia on a hit album of 1962, Moon River and Other Great Movie Themes. In 2022, Williams' rendition of the song was selected for preservation in the Library of Congress.

The song's success was responsible for relaunching Mercer's career as a songwriter, which had stalled in the mid-1950s because rock and roll had replaced jazz standards as the popular music of the time. The song's popularity is such that it has been used as a test sample in a study on people's memories of popular songs. Comments about the lyrics have noted that they are particularly reminiscent of Mercer's youth in the southern United States and his longing to expand his horizons. Robert Wright wrote in The Atlantic Monthly, "This is a love sung [sic] to wanderlust. Or a romantic song in which the romantic partner is the idea of romance." An inlet near Savannah, Georgia, Johnny Mercer's hometown, was named Moon River in honor of him and this song.

Versions

Original

Mercer and Mancini wrote the song for Audrey Hepburn to sing in the film Breakfast at Tiffany's. The lyrics, written by Mercer, are reminiscent of his childhood in Savannah, Georgia, including its waterways. As a child, he had picked huckleberries in summer, and he connected them with a carefree childhood and Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn. Although an instrumental version is played over the film's opening titles, the lyrics are first heard in a scene where Paul "Fred" Varjak (George Peppard) discovers Holly Golightly (Hepburn) singing the song, accompanying herself on the guitar while sitting on the fire escape outside their apartments.

There was an eruption of behind-the-scenes consternation when a Paramount Pictures executive, Martin Rackin, suggested removing the song from the film after a tepid Los Angeles preview. Hepburn's reaction was described by Mancini and others in degrees varying from her saying, "Over my dead body!" to her using more colorful language to make the same point.

An album version was recorded by Mancini and his orchestra and chorus (without Hepburn's vocal) on December 8, 1960. It was released as a single in 1961 and became a number 11 hit in December of that year. Due to unpublished charts in Billboard, Joel Whitburn's Top Adult (Contemporary) Songs variously reported the song as a number 3 or number 1 easy listening hit. Mancini's original version was also featured in the film Born on the Fourth of July (1989).

In 1993, following Hepburn's death, her version was released on an album titled Music from the Films of Audrey Hepburn. In 2004, Hepburn's version finished at number 4 on AFI's 100 Years...100 Songs survey of top tunes in American cinema.

Chart history

Henry Mancini & Orchestra

Early recordings

"Moon River" was a hit single for Jerry Butler in late 1961. Released simultaneously with Mancini's, it reached number 11 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and number 3 Easy Listening in December, two weeks before Mancini's recording reached the same chart ranking.

Chart history

Jerry Butler

British singer Danny Williams had a hit version of the song that reached number one in the UK in the final week of 1961.

Although Andy Williams never released the song as a single, his LP Moon River and Other Great Movie Themes (1962), was certified gold in 1963 for selling one million units. The album reached number 3 on the Billboard Top 200, eventually selling more than two million copies by 1967. In 2002, a 74-year-old Andy Williams sang the song at the conclusion of the live NBC special telecast celebrating the network's 75th anniversary. In 2018, Andy Williams' version on Columbia Records was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.

In 2022, Andy Williams' recording of the song was selected by the Library of Congress for preservation in the National Recording Registry.

Chart history

Later versions

Hundreds of versions of the song have been recorded and it has been featured in many media. Mercer recorded the song in 1974 for his album My Huckleberry Friend. In 2007, saxophonist Dave Koz recorded a version from his standards music album, At the Movies, sung by Barry Manilow.

In 2013, Neil Finn and Paul Kelly performed the song on their Goin' Your Way Tour, during which their performance at the Sydney Opera House Concert Hall was recorded for the live album, Goin' Your Way, released the same year. The title of the album comes from a phrase in the song's chorus: "Wherever you're goin', I'm goin' your way".

Lawrence Welk's 1961 instrumental version was featured in Mad Men season 6, episode 13, "In Care Of" (2013).

A version of the song was featured in Asif Kapadia's documentary film, Amy (2015), about Amy Winehouse. Winehouse's version, sung at age 16 with the National Youth Jazz Orchestra in 2000, is the opening song in the film.

The Telegraph listed, among prominent covers of the song, those by Frank Sinatra,

Judy Garland,

Sarah Vaughan,

Louis Armstrong,

Sarah Brightman

and Chevy Chase (in the comedy film Fletch).

Other stars who have covered the song include Rod Stewart in Fly Me to the Moon... The Great American Songbook Volume V (2010), which charted at No. 4 on the Billboard 200,

Barbra Streisand in The Movie Album (2003), a Grammy-nominated gold album,

and Frank Ocean, who released a cover on Valentine's Day 2018 that debuted in the Top 10 of the Billboard Hot R&B chart.

Diffuser.fm named these the "Top 5 Alt-Rock" versions of the song: Morrissey,

Glasvegas, R.E.M.,

The Killers

and Josh Ritter.

Jacob Collier's a capella cover won the 2020 Grammy Award for Best Arrangement, Instrumental or A Cappella.

Voctave A Cappella - Moon River

Moon River - Dreamybull (Saxophone Cover)

Beyoncé - Moon River

Elton John

Andrea Ross - Moon River [Official Music Video]

Moon River - Pery Como - instrumental cover by Dave Monk

Perry Como - Moon River

Connie Francis - Moon River

Eric Clapton & Jeff Beck - Moon River

Billy Vaughn - Moon River

Andrea Bocelli, Caterina Murino - Moon River

James Last - Moon River

Johnny Mathis - Moon River

Donny Osmond's Tribute to Andy Williams, Moon River Duet - Harrah's Las Vegas

Moon River (Instrumental) - Yuki - Breakfast at Tiffany's

PETRY GILLES - Moon River

Carla Bruni - Moon River

Breakfast at Tiffany's (Film)

Breakfast at Tiffany's is a 1961 American romantic comedy film directed by Blake Edwards, written by George Axelrod, adapted from Truman Capote's 1958 novella of the same name, and starring Audrey Hepburn as Holly Golightly, a naïve, eccentric café society girl who falls in love with a struggling writer while attempting to marry for money. It was theatrically released by Paramount Pictures on October 5, 1961, to critical and commercial success.

Nominated for five Academy Awards (winning two), with the music (including "Moon River") nominated for six Grammy Awards (winning five), the film was selected in 2012 for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically or aesthetically significant".

Plot

Just after dawn a taxi pulls up in front of the Tiffany & Co. flagship store in New York and from it emerges elegantly dressed Holly Golightly, carrying a paper bag containing her breakfast. After looking into the store's window displays, she strolls to her apartment and has to fend off her date from the night before.

Once inside, Holly cannot find her keys, so she buzzes her landlord, Mr. Yunioshi, to let her in. Later, she is awakened by new neighbor Paul Varjak, who rings her doorbell to get into the building. The pair talk as she dresses to leave for her weekly visit to mobster Sally Tomato, currently incarcerated at Sing Sing. Tomato's lawyer pays her $100 a week to deliver "the weather report".

As she is leaving Holly is introduced to Paul's "decorator,” a wealthy older woman Emily Eustace Failenson, whom Paul nicknames "2E.” That night, when Holly crawls out onto the fire escape to elude an over-eager date, she peeks into Paul's apartment and sees 2E leaving money and kissing him goodbye.

Visiting Paul afterward, she learns he is a writer who has not had anything published since a book of vignettes five years earlier, and has no ribbon in his typewriter. Holly, in turn, explains she is saving money to support her brother Fred after he completes his Army service. The pair fall asleep but are awakened when Holly has a nightmare about Fred. When Paul questions her about this, Holly chides him for prying.

Holly later buys Paul a typewriter ribbon to apologize, and invites him to a wild party at her apartment. There he meets her Hollywood agent, Berman, who describes Holly's transformation from a country girl into a Manhattan “socialite”, along with wealthy Brazilian politician José da Silva Pereira and Rusty Trawler, the "ninth richest man in America under 50".

Some time later, 2E enters Paul's apartment, worried about someone loitering outside the building. Paul confronts the man who explains he is Holly's husband, Doc Golightly. They married when she was 14, but she ran away, and he has come to bring her back to rural Texas. After Paul reunites Holly and Doc, she informs Paul that the marriage was annulled. At the Greyhound bus station, she tells Doc that he made a mistake in "trying to love a wild thing", and he leaves broken-hearted.

After drinking at a club, Paul and Holly return to her apartment, where she tells him that she plans to marry Trawler for his money. A few days later, Paul learns that one of his short stories will be published. On the way to tell Holly, he sees a newspaper headline stating that Trawler has married someone else.

Holly and Paul agree to spend the day together, taking turns doing things each has never done before. At Tiffany's, he has the ring from Doc Golightly's box of Cracker Jack engraved as a present for her. After spending the night together, Paul awakens to find Holly gone. 2E arrives and calmly accepts when he ends their affair, realizing he loves another.

Returning from a date with José, Holly learns her brother Fred has been killed. She trashes the apartment. Paul calms her and sends José in.

Months later, Holly is about to move to Brazil and marry José. She is arrested in connection with Sally Tomato's drug ring. The headlines are devastating. Berman pays her bail, and Paul picks her up in a cab with all her things, including Cat—and José's written farewell. Holly decides to go to Brazil anyway, breaking bail. Paul declares that he loves her, but she says no one will put her in a cage. She throws Cat out into an alley, into the pouring rain. Paul says that being in love is the only chance anybody has got for real happiness, and he storms out of the cab and tells her that she is already in a cage that she takes with her. He tosses the engraved ring into her lap and leaves. She puts it on, weeping, then runs back to the alley, where Paul is calling Cat. Tears blending with rain, Holly calls for Cat, in vain. Her eyes meet Paul's, and Cat yowls. She cradles him in her coat and, smiling, walks into Paul's embrace.

Cast

• Audrey Hepburn as Holly Golightly
• George Peppard as Paul Varjak
• Patricia Neal as Mrs. Emily Eustace "2E" Failenson
• Buddy Ebsen as Doc Golightly
• Martin Balsam as O.J. Berman
• José Luis de Vilallonga as José da Silva Pereira (mononymously as Vilallonga)
• John McGiver as Tiffany's salesman
• Dorothy Whitney as Mag Wildwood
• Stanley Adams as Rutherford "Rusty" Trawler
• Elvia Allman as the librarian
• Alan Reed as Sally Tomato
• Miss Beverly Hills as the stripper
• Claude Stroud as Sid Arbuck
• Orangey as Cat (Frank Inn, trainer)
• Mickey Rooney as Mr. Yunioshi

Production

Pre-production

The Oscar-nominated screenplay was written by George Axelrod, loosely based on the novella by Truman Capote. Changes were made to fit the medium of cinema and to correspond to the filmmakers' vision. Capote, who sold the film rights of his novella to Paramount Studios, wanted Marilyn Monroe to play Holly Golightly, whom he had described perfectly in the book. Barry Paris cites Capote's own comments on the choice of actress: "Marilyn was always my first choice to play the girl, Holly Golightly." Screenwriter Axelrod was hired to "tailor the screenplay for Monroe". When Lee Strasberg advised Monroe that playing a "lady of the evening" would be bad for her image, she turned it down and performed in The Misfits instead. When Hepburn was cast instead of Monroe, Capote remarked: "Paramount double-crossed me in every way and cast Audrey". Shirley MacLaine was also offered the part of Holly, but she turned it down and performed in Two Loves instead. Kim Novak also turned down the role of Holly. Hepburn was hesitant to be cast in the film as her character would go against who she was. She relented when she gave it some more thought, remarking "Holly is an extrovert and I'm an introvert, so I saw it as an interesting challenge. "Steve McQueen was offered the role of Paul Varjak, but declined the offer due to being under contract. Jack Lemmon was also approached but he was unavailable. Robert Wagner was also considered.

Axelrod worked with the original director of the film John Frankenheimer for a period of three months, but Hepburn's agent wanted a more known director, with the result that Frankenheimer was removed from the project.

Principal photography

Filming began on Fifth Avenue outside the Tiffany & Co. flagship store on October 2, 1960. Most of the exteriors were filmed in New York City, and all of the interiors, except for portions of the scene inside Tiffany & Company, were filmed on the Paramount Studios lot in Hollywood.

According to one report, the film's on-location opening sequence, in which Holly gazes into a Tiffany's display window, was extremely difficult for director Blake Edwards to shoot. Although it was simple in concept, crowd control, Hepburn's dislike of pastries, and an accident that nearly resulted in the electrocution of a crew member are all said to have made capturing the scene a challenge. However, another report claims that the sequence was captured rather quickly due to the good fortune of an unexpected traffic lull.

Music

Main article: Breakfast at Tiffany's: Music from the Motion Picture

It took me a long time to figure out what Holly Golightly was all about. One night after midnight I was still trying. I don't drink much, but I was sipping. And it came to me. I wrote ["Moon River"] in half an hour.

Henry Mancini

During the film, Hepburn sang the film's signature song, "Moon River" by Henry Mancini and Johnny Mercer. The song was tailored to Hepburn's limited vocal range, based on songs she had performed in 1957's Funny Face. On the Anniversary Edition DVD of Breakfast at Tiffany's, co-producer Dick Shepherd says in his audio commentary that after a preview in San Francisco, Martin Rankin, Paramount's head of production, wanted "Moon River" replaced with music by somebody else but "Marty [Jurow, co-producer] and I both said 'over our dead bodies,'" – a remark attributed to Hepburn herself in another account.

According to Time magazine, Mancini "sets off his melodies with a walking bass, extends them with choral and string variations, varies them with the brisk sounds of combo jazz. 'Moon River' is sobbed by a plaintive harmonica, repeated by strings, hummed and then sung by the chorus, finally resolved with the harmonica again."

The soundtrack featured a score composed and conducted by Henry Mancini, with songs by Mancini and lyricist Johnny Mercer. Mancini and Mercer won the 1961 Oscar for Best Original Song for "Moon River". Mancini won for Best Original Score. There are also unreleased score pieces from Breakfast at Tiffany's in existence; "Carousel Cue" is from an unsurfaced scene, while "Outtake 1" is from a deleted scene in which Holly and Paul visit Tiffany's and is a variation of the main theme. In 2013 Intrada released the complete score in its original film performance (as with many soundtrack albums by Mancini and others at the time, the album released alongside the film was a re-recording).

Reception

Breakfast at Tiffany's was theatrically released by Paramount Pictures on October 5, 1961, to critical and commercial success, grossing $14 million on a $2.5 million budget. Hepburn's portrayal of Holly Golightly is generally considered to be one of her most memorable and identifiable roles. She regarded it as one of her most challenging roles, since she was an introvert required to play an extrovert.

The film received five nominations at the 34th Academy Awards; Best Actress (for Hepburn), Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Production Design, winning Best Original Score and Best Original Song for "Moon River". It was considered "culturally, historically or aesthetically" significant by the U.S. Library of Congress and selected to be preserved in the National Film Registry in 2012.

On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 88% based on 56 reviews, with an average score of 7.50/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "It contains some ugly anachronisms, but Blake Edwards is at his funniest in this iconic classic, and Audrey Hepburn absolutely lights up the screen." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 77 out of 100 based on 13 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".

Critical response

Variety called it "a bright b.o. contender".

Time magazine noted "for the first half hour or so, Hollywood's Holly (Audrey Hepburn) is not much different from Capote's. She has kicked the weed and lost the illegitimate child she was having, but she is still jolly Holly, the child bride from Tulip, Texas, who at 15 runs away to Hollywood to find some of the finer things of life—like shoes." It pointed out that "after that out-of-Capote beginning, director Blake Edwards ... goes on to an out-of-character end." Almost a half century later, Time commented on the pivotal impact of Hepburn's portrayal of Golightly:

Breakfast at Tiffany's set Hepburn on her [19]60s Hollywood course. Holly Golightly, small-town Southern girl turned Manhattan trickster, was the naughty American cousin of Eliza Doolittle, Cockney flower girl turned My Fair Lady. Holly was also the prototype for the Hepburn women in Charade, Paris When It Sizzles, and How to Steal a Million: kooks in capers. And she prepared audiences for the ground-level anxieties that Hepburn characters endured in The Children's Hour, Two for the Road and Wait Until Dark.

The Chicago Tribune review was positive: "In the wrong hands, the unconventional, disorganized, sophisticated, innocent, utterly contradictory character created by Truman Capote could be a tiresome idiot. Audrey makes her as sweet as she is silly, as appealing as she is affected, a playgirl without scruples, a moth who doesn't quite deserve to die in a flame. While Audrey is gifted, she also has everything to work with, including a perceptive, slick script and a fine supporting cast. George Peppard is just right....Buddy Ebsen gives a moving performance...and Martin Balsam as a typical agent is hilarious. Mickey Rooney adds to the fun as a toothy Japanese."

The Philadelphia Inquirer reviewer was complimentary overall as well: "Breakfast at Tiffany's shines like a gem from that famed institution....much of the iridescence comes from the richly impulsive performace [sic?] of Audrey Hepburn as the scatterbrained, now pathetic, now fiercely independent peri of Truman Capote's novella....[George Peppard's role] is played with understanding....Buddy Ebsen appears briefly, but to good effect....Mickey Rooney is too slapstick as the Japanese photographer disturbed by Holly's antics. Director Blake Edwards keeps things moving with a lilt."

It premiered at the Radio City Music Hall, and The New York Times called the film a "completely unbelievable but wholly captivating flight into fancy composed of unequal dollops of comedy, romance, poignancy, funny colloquialisms and Manhattan's swankiest East Side areas captured in the loveliest of colors". In reviewing the performances, the newspaper said Holly Golightly is

as implausible as ever. But in the person of Miss Hepburn, she is a genuinely charming, elfin waif who will be believed and adored when seen. George Peppard is casual and, for the most part, a subdued citizen who seems to like observing better than participating in the proceedings. Martin Balsam makes a properly brash, snappy Hollywood agent. Mickey Rooney's bucktoothed, myopic Japanese is broadly exotic. Patricia Neal is simply cool and brisk in her few appearances as Mr. Peppard's sponsor and Vilallonga, is properly suave and Continental as Miss Hepburn's Brazilian, while Buddy Ebsen has a brief poignant moment as Miss Hepburn's husband.

Truman Capote hated Hepburn in the lead part. Capote biographer Gerald Clarke deemed the film a "valentine" to free-spirited women rather than a cautionary tale about a little girl lost in the big city. "The movie is a confection — a sugar and spice confection."

Awards and nominations

• American Film Institute ranked the film No. 61 in 100 Years ... 100 Passions and "Moon River" as No. 4 in 100 Years ... 100 Songs.
• The film was ranked No. 486 on Empire's The 500 Greatest Movies of All Time list for 2008.

Influence

Hepburn as Holly, with her hair in a high chignon and carrying an oversized cigarette holder, is considered one of the most iconic images of 20th century American cinema. Another iconic item throughout the movie is Holly's sunglasses. Often misidentified as Ray-Ban, they are Manhattan sunglasses designed and manufactured in London by Oliver Goldsmith. In 2011 the model was re-released to mark the 50th anniversary of Breakfast at Tiffany's. One of three dresses designed by Givenchy for Hepburn for possible use in the film sold at auction by Christie's on December 5, 2006, for £467,200 (~US$947,000), about seven times the reserve price. The "Little Black Dress" by Givenchy, worn by Hepburn in the beginning of the film, is cited as one of the most iconic items of clothing in the history of the twentieth century and is, perhaps, the most famous little black dress of all time. A second "little black dress" in Breakfast at Tiffany's, along with its wide-brimmed hat, was worn by Hepburn as Holly when she goes to visit mobster Sally Tomato at Sing Sing Prison. This dress was paid homage as one of the dresses worn by Anne Hathaway's character Selina Kyle, Catwoman's alter ego, in Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight Rises; the comic book Catwoman drawn by artist Adam Hughes, was based on Hepburn, creating a double homage to Hepburn's Holly Golightly in Hathaway's Catwoman.

The film rejuvenated the career of 1930s movie song-and-dance man Buddy Ebsen, who had a small but effective role in this film as Doc Golightly, Holly's ex-husband. His success here led directly to his best-known role as Jed Clampett on The Beverly Hillbillies.

A diamond necklace at Tiffany's that Hepburn scorned as too flashy was the Tiffany Yellow Diamond, which she wore in publicity photos for the film. Tiffany's profile as a pre-eminent luxury retailer, while already established, was further boosted by the film.

Portrayal of Mr. Yunioshi and later yellowface controversy

Main article: I. Y. Yunioshi

For his portrayal of I. Y. Yunioshi, Mickey Rooney wore makeup and a prosthetic mouthpiece to change his features to a caricatured approximation of a Japanese man. Since the 1990s, this portrayal has been subject to increasing protest by Asian Americans, among others. For instance, in the film Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story (1993), Breakfast at Tiffany's is used as an illustration of Hollywood's racist depiction of Asian people when Bruce Lee and his future wife, Linda, see the film and Linda suggests they leave when she notices that Bruce is upset at Rooney's caricatured performance.

In his audio commentary for the DVD release, producer Richard Shepherd said that at the time of production as well as in retrospect, he wanted to recast the role "not because he [Rooney] didn't play the part well" but because Shepherd thought the part of Mr. Yunioshi should be performed by an actor of Japanese ethnicity; it was director Blake Edwards' decision to keep Rooney. In a "making-of" for the 45th anniversary edition DVD release, Shepherd repeatedly apologizes, saying, "If we could just change Mickey Rooney, I'd be thrilled with the movie." Director Blake Edwards stated, "Looking back, I wish I had never done it ... and I would give anything to be able to recast it, but it's there, and onward and upward."

In a 2008 interview about the film, 87-year-old Rooney said he was heartbroken about the criticism:

It breaks my heart. Blake Edwards ... wanted me to do it because he was a comedy director. They hired me to do this overboard, and we had fun doing it ... Never in all the more than 40 years after we made it — not one complaint. Every place I've gone in the world people say, "God, you were so funny." Asians and Chinese come up to me and say, "Mickey you were out of this world."

Rooney also said that if he had known the portrayal would have offended people so much, "I wouldn't have done it. Those that didn't like it, I forgive them and God bless America, God bless the universe, God bless Japanese, Chinese, Indians, all of them and let's have peace."

The film continues to draw criticism for this character, now widely considered to be a racist caricature, particularly when the movie is selected as a "classic" screened in public spaces, supported by tax dollars. In 2011, a SyFy and Brooklyn Bridge Park Corporation screening inspired petitions.

Film historian and Turner Classic Movies host Robert Osborne stated in a Q&A that he would recast Rooney from the picture saying, "that was such a racial slur, out of nowhere, and I blame Blake Edwards for that decision, the caricature was totally embarrassing".

In 2022 in the UK, Channel 5 broadcast an edited version of the film in which all the shots of Mr Yunioshi were deleted, though Mickey Rooney's credit remained in the main titles, leading to accusations of censorship. Channel 5 is wholly-owned subsidiary of the American media conglomerate Paramount Global, which owns the rights to the film.

Home media

Breakfast at Tiffany's was one of the first Hepburn films to be released to the home video market in the early 1980s, and is also widely available on DVD. On February 7, 2006, Paramount released a 45th anniversary special edition DVD set in North America with featurettes not included on the prior DVD release:

• Audio Commentary – with producer Richard Shepherd
• Breakfast at Tiffany's: The Making of a Classic – a making-of featurette with interviews by Edwards, Neal, the "laughing/crying" woman from the party, and Sean Ferrer, Hepburn's son.
• It's So Audrey! A Style Icon – a short tribute to Hepburn.
• Brilliance in a Blue Box – a brief history of Tiffany & Co.
• Audrey's Letter to Tiffany – an accounting of Hepburn's letter to Tiffany & Co. on the occasion of the company's 150th anniversary in 1987.
• Original Theatrical Trailer
• Photo Gallery

On January 13, 2009, a remastered Centennial Collection version of the film was released. In addition to the special features on the 45th anniversary edition, this version includes:

• A Golightly Gathering – Reuniting some of the past cast members from the party with interviews on their experiences filming that segment.
• Henry Mancini: More Than Music – A featurette about Henry Mancini, "Moon River" and interviews with Mancini's wife and children.
• Mr. Yunioshi: An Asian Perspective – Documentary discussing the reaction and Asian perspective of the character of Mr. Yunioshi, one of the most controversial characters in film.
• Behind the Gates – A tour through Paramount Studios

In 2011 a newly remastered HD version of the film was released on Blu-ray with many of the features from the aforementioned DVDs. The digital restoration of the film was done by Paramount Pictures. The digital pictures were frame by frame digitally restored at Prasad Corporation to remove dirt, tears, scratches and other artifacts. The film was restored to its original look for its 50th anniversary.

Stage adaptations

In 2004, a musical adaptation of the film made its world debut at The Muny in St. Louis.

In May 2009, Anna Friel starred in a London adaptation that opened in September 2009 at the Haymarket Theatre.

A new stage adaptation made its debut in March 2013 at the Cort Theater in New York City with Emilia Clarke in the role of Holly Golightly.

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