Coldplay Live Concert Webcast to Be Directed by Anton Corbijn

Sarah Lee Coldplay will perform in Madrid on Oct. 26 at a concert that will be streamed live on the Internet.

To add to a directorial résumé that includes films like “The American” and “Control” as well as music videos like U2’s “One” and Nirvana’s “Heart-Shaped Box,” Anton Corbijn has found an assignment that he expects will keep him on his feet. “And afterwards,” he said, “on my back, probably.”

Mr. Corbijn, the Dutch filmmaker and photographer, will direct the live Web broadcast of a concert performance by Coldplay, the British rock quartet, at the Plaza de Toros de Las Ventas in Madrid. The Webcast is the latest entry in the American Express Unstaged series, which has previously paired Terry Gilliam with Arcade Fire; David Lynch with Duran Duran; and Todd Haynes with My Morning Jacket. The Coldplay concert will be streamed live starting at 4 p.m. Eastern time on Oct. 26 at youtube.com/coldplayVEVO, and is presented in partnership with the video Web sites YouTube and VEVO. The companies were expected to announce the event on Thursday.

The concert, to promote Coldplay’s new album “Mylo Xyloto,” will put Mr. Corbijn in charge of 12 cameras that will be situated around Las Ventas, a famous Spanish bullfighting arena that has previously hosted performances by AC/DC and Radiohead. In a telephone interview, Mr. Corbijn described a recent visit to the bullring (“My star sign is Taurus, so I was a little hesitant going in there”) and said it was a “fantastic place” for a rock concert.

“Usually when you play to 15 or 20,000 people, the arenas tend to be elongated, and this is round and it’s very high up, so there’s a wall of people around you.” Mr. Corbijn said, adding: “Spanish people tend to be very enthusiastic at concerts, and you get incredible energy from them. I would prefer it to Amsterdam.”

Though Mr. Corbijn is perhaps most closely associated with Depeche Mode, the moody electronic rock band for whom he directed videos like “Personal Jesus,” he has also directed videos for Coldplay’s songs “Viva La Vida” and “Talk,” and said he finds Coldplay to be “a very uplifting band.”

Then again, he said, “I have such a love of good music, that I find even melancholic music uplifting. Maybe I’m a rare breed.”

After the Coldplay concert (and perhaps a nice long nap), Mr. Corbijn says he is starting work on a film adaptation of “A Most Wanted Man,” the John Le Carré novel about a mysterious man’s arrival in post-9/11 Hamburg.

He might also cross paths with the Coldplay front man Chris Martin at a gym they both frequent, although, Mr. Corbijn said, “This makes it sound like I go to the gym every day. There was a period that I would at least go once a week. But not currently.”