Sandra Hüller to Play Wolfgang Herrndorf in Maria Schrader's 'Arbeit und Struktur'

Sandra Hüller will portray the German writer Wolfgang Herrndorf in Arbeit und Struktur (Work and Structure), an adaptation of Herrndorf's autobiographical work directed by Maria Schrader, according to Variety.

Herrndorf was diagnosed with a terminal brain tumour in 2010. He began documenting his life in an online journal that grew into the book Arbeit und Struktur, published posthumously by Rowohlt Berlin Verlag in 2013 after his death. Schrader is writing the screenplay with Jan Schomburg.

Hüller is a German actress whose international profile rose sharply with her lead performance in the 2023 courtroom drama Anatomy of a Fall. Taking on the role of Herrndorf means she will play a man — the writer facing his own mortality and turning the experience into art.

The project assembles a familiar European production chain. Komplizen Film produces; Studiocanal, the pan-European studio owned by the Canal+ Group, co-produces alongside German broadcaster ZDF and French production company Haut et Court. Studiocanal will handle worldwide sales — meaning it sells distribution rights territory by territory to buyers around the globe — and will release the film directly in Germany, France and Italy in 2028, according to Variety. Production is set to begin in early 2027.

Herrndorf was also the author of Tschick (titled Why We Took the Car in English), a bestselling coming-of-age novel adapted for the screen by director Fatih Akin and released in Germany by Studiocanal, as Variety notes. That earlier Studiocanal connection gives Arbeit und Struktur a returning partner on the Herrndorf estate.

For Hüller, the announcement lands in the middle of what could become a notable awards cycle. She could be in contention for two Academy Award nominations in the same season — for Project Hail Mary and for Paweł Pawlikowski's Fatherland, per Variety. A dual nomination in a single year is rare; joining that season with a future project led by Schrader, one of Germany's most decorated directors, adds another layer to her trajectory.

Schrader won an Emmy in 2021 for directing the limited series Unorthodox. Her move to feature material drawn from Herrndorf's life and writing pairs two of Germany's prominent creative figures around a story that carries real weight.