Breakfast at Tiffany's (film) 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
Breakfast at Tiffany's (novella) that he "would not be interested if ["Esquire"] did not use Attie's [original series of] photographs." He wrote to "Esquire" fiction editor Rust Hills, "I'm happy that you are using [Attie's] pictures, as I think they are excellent." But to his disappointment, "Esquire" ran just one full-page image of Attie's (another was later used as the cover of at least one paperback edition of the novella). The novella appeared in the November, 1958 issue. Shortly afterward, a collection of the novella and three short stories by Capote was published by Random House—and the glowing reviews caused sales of the "Esquire"