It's no secret that Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues has Empire counting down the days like a kid before Christmas. We've been bothering people about for about five years - try this 2008 interview with Judd Apatow for starters - and now it's nearly here, the self-pinching has begun in earnest. So will Ron Burgundy (Will Ferrell) live up, or rather down, to our expectations? You betcha, director Adam McKay explained in our exclusive interview with him just before the movie's shoot kicked off on March 4.

"If he wasn't a giant A-hole, everything would be okay," McKay told Empire of Ron's attempts to get to grips with cable news networks and the 24-hour news cycle. "By the end he's got to be a little less of an A-hole, but that's still a little hard for him to do."

The Channel 4 news team - Brick, Champ, Christina and Brian - are back for more Sex Panther-scented adventures, this time headed in the direction of the Big Apple. "San Diego is too close to Ron's heart to go away, but we feel that New York City is the holy grail for all newsmen."

It's a shame that the movie is set in the late '70s; the prospect of the Public News team teaching Piers Morgan the meaning of its "no commercials, no mercy" ethos has great merit, although McKay is promising that Steve Carell's Brick Tamland will be filling the mayhem void and then some. "Brick's so far gone that you can't have a relationship with him," he laughed, admitting that Kristen Wiig's character will be tempting him to do just that. "It takes a special someone to get a rope snare around his heart. She is dangerous!"

Get hold of a copy of Empire's April issue for more from McKay on Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues. The legend actually continues on December 20.