Writer-director Armando Iannucci has revealed that the new Alan Partridge movie will see the hapless presenter doing battle with a media giant.

Iannucci said the film, starring Steve Coogan as the bumbling host, would see Partridge objecting when his local digital TV channel is taken over and renamed Shape.

The plot has echoes of Coogan taking his own stand against the media and pursuing a legal action against News International for phone hacking.

The case was settled earlier this year, but the star – whose company has gone on to sign a deal with Sky – has continued to be vocal about media intrusion.

Iannucci, speaking at a Bafta screening of his new HBO political comedy, Veep, said: "Alan is in Norwich. It's not 'Alan goes to Hollywood'; it's not 'Alan invaded by aliens' or anything like that. He's on North Norfolk Digital, which is taken over by a bigger media conglomerate and has it's name changed to Shape. And that kicks everything off."

He added that the script was being finalised and the film would begin production at the end of the year or early in 2013.

Iannucci has just finished filming a new series of the BBC's The Thick Of It and is already writing a new series of Veep, the first series of which is about to be aired on Sky Atlantic.

He said he had researched US swearing habits for the show, set in Washington and starring Julia Louis-Dreyfus, and found that Americans swear less than the British. The Thick Of It's ferocious spin doctor, Malcolm Tucker, played by Peter Capaldi and inspired by former Labour aide Alastair Campbell, is famous for his expletive-filled rants.

Iannucci said he was unhappy that the swearing was bleeped out of the series when it was aired on BBC America. He added: "What I thought was happening was it was going out at about nine o'clock bleeped, and at midnight unbleeped. That's what I thought was happening – and they reneged on that. Somebody told me the bleeped version is actually quite frightening – you just think, 'What are they saying?'

"But, fingers crossed, we're about to do a deal that the whole catalogue of The Thick of It will go out in America unbleeped."