Sandra Hüller Will Play Wolfgang Herrndorf in New Film

Sandra Hüller will take on one of her most unusual screen transformations yet, playing the late German writer and artist Wolfgang Herrndorf in Work and Structure. Maria Schrader is directing the adaptation of Herrndorf’s autobiographical journal, with production scheduled to begin in early 2027.

A deeply personal book moves to the screen

Herrndorf began documenting his life after receiving a terminal brain tumor diagnosis in 2010. His online journal followed the final years of his life through illness, hospital stays, friendship, love and intense periods of creative work. Published posthumously in Germany in 2013, the resulting book became a major literary success.

The film will center on that tension between mortality and artistic momentum. Hüller’s casting places the project in the hands of an actor known for exacting, psychologically complex performances in Anatomy of a Fall and The Zone of Interest. It also asks her to portray a real male literary figure without reducing the role to surface imitation.

Schrader is writing the screenplay with Jan Schomburg. Her credits include She Said, I’m Your Man and the acclaimed limited series Unorthodox, making this another project built around the interior life of a person confronting powerful social and personal pressures.

A major European production

Komplizen Film is producing, with Studiocanal, ZDF and France’s Haut et Court serving as co-producers. Studiocanal will oversee worldwide sales and plans to release the movie in Germany, France and Italy in 2028. Public film bodies in Germany and the Creative Europe MEDIA program are also backing the project.

Herrndorf is additionally known for the bestselling novel Why We Took the Car, originally published as Tschick and later adapted for cinema. Work and Structure, however, is rooted directly in the author’s own record of living and writing after his diagnosis.

The project now has a defined creative team, production window and European distribution plan. What has not yet been announced is a broader cast or a precise release date, leaving Hüller’s central performance as the clearest early signal of the film’s ambition.