Ian Abercrombie, Elaine's Boss on Seinfeld, Dies at 77

Ian Abercrombie Ian Abercrombie, the British stage actor best known as Elaine's boss Mr. Pitt on Seinfeld, has died. He was 77.Abercrombie died Thursday at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles from complications of kidney failure, according to the Los Angeles Times. He had recently been diagnosed with lymphoma.See other stars we've lostBorn in England, Abercrombie started out as a stage dancer and made his American stage debut in 1955 in a production of Stalag 17 with Jason Robards. After serving in the Army as part of Special Services in Germany, he returned to acting, appearing in numerous plays, TV shows and films before a seven-episode arc on Seinfeld changed his life."Incredibly so," he told CNN in 1998. "I mean, I have been around as an actor for 40-odd years, and this show knocked me out of the ballpark."Abercrombie played Justin Pitt, Elaine's eccentric, picky boss who fired her after he became convinced that she had tried to kill him. "I was a pain in the neck. I was a hypochondriac. I was many things, and I just made her life so miserable," Abercrombie said of Mr. Pitt. "She wouldn't take the salt off my pretzels, you know. She brought me white socks ... she did a lot of things for me, but she could never do it right."Abercrombie also appeared on the TV series Birds of Prey, Get Smart, L.A. Law, Dynasty, Northern Exposure, NewsRadio, Murphy Brown, Desperate Housewives and How I Met Your Mother. Most recently, he recurred on Wizards of Waverly Place as Professor Crumb.Check out photos of Ian AbercrombieHis film credits include They Shoot Horses, Don't They?, Young Frankenstein, Army of Darkness, The Lost World: Jurassic Park, Star Wars: The Clone Wars and Rango.Abercrombie was a founding member and former board member of BAFTA-LA and was a board member of the Actor's Fund of America.He is survived by his brothers Douglas, Donald and Alex.Watch Abercrombie on Seinfeld:

Sundance 2012: The Genre Movies We're Excited For

It's a bird, it's a plane, it's... Vin Diesel on the set of "Riddick"? While we're just happy to see that the movie is busy filming, we're a bit confused by Diesel's superhero style get-up. Is this the vengeance-seeking gear in Riddick's part of the universe? We can't wait to find out. The image comes courtesy of Diesel's Facebook page, where he thanked his fans for giving him the chance to make a new "Riddick" movie. "Grateful for the opportunity to make magic," he wrote. There has been a lot of activity recently prepping the upcoming film. "Battlestar Galactica" actress Katee Sackhoff joined the production as the female lead, Dahl, a Nordic mercenary tasked with hunting down Riddick. In addition, Jordi Molla is playing the movie's villain, a man named Santana bent on killing Riddick. Karl Urban will reprise his role as Lord Vaako. David Twohy returns to direct his third Riddick film. He helmed the previous two entries, "Pitch Black" and "The Chronicles of Riddick." The movie does not have a set release date yet. Here's the official synopsis for the movie: "Betrayed by his own kind and left for dead on a desolate planet, Riddick (Diesel) fights for survival against alien predators and becomes more powerful and dangerous than ever before. Soon bounty hunters from throughout the galaxy descend on Riddick only to find themselves pawns in his greater scheme for revenge. With his enemies right where he wants them, Riddick unleashes a vicious attack of vengeance before returning to his home planet of Furya to save it from destruction." What do you think of this new image of Diesel as Riddick? Tell us in the comments section below or on Twitter.

The new sony VOD game titles visiting South America

'The Smurfs'"The Lady Using the Dragon Tattoo," "Moneyball" and "The Smurfs" will quickly be accessible on VOD in South America because of a pact between The new sony Pictures Television and giant The spanish language telco Telefonica.Agreement includes brand new The new sony Pictures releases over an unspecified period of time, such as the approaching "Males in Black III" and "The Astonishing Spider-Guy" in addition to catalog game titles and television skeins.Move is available in the wake of Netflix's launch in South America in September as various companies boost their content. Digital TV Research reviews that 71% from the region's TV homes -- 93 million -- may have digital TV by 2016, triple the finish-2010 total. Pay TV homes rose 19% this year to 34.4 million, per Screen Digest estimations.Content is going to be on online TV, pills, Computers, mobile phones and video games and can develop the information offered on Telefonica's virtual videoclub platform.The happy couple have contracts already in position in The country, the Czech Republic and Germany. Contact the range newsroom at news@variety.com

FremantleMedia reshapes int'l biz

FremantleMedia is shuffling its professional pack, moving worldwide entertainment prexy Take advantage of Clark towards the recently produced role of director of worldwide entertainment development and giving his old title to acting prexy Trish Kinane. Kinane, who'll are accountable to FremantleMedia's chief operating officer Gary Carter, will oversee the worldwide roll-of all the company's non-scripted formats through its worldwide production network. The organization, that is a part of Bertelsmann's RTL Group, supports the privileges to global brands including "Idol," "Got Talent" and "The X Factor," in addition to a back catalog which includes "Family Feud" and "The Cost is appropriate.Inch Before Fremantle, Kinane was joint controlling director of U.K. shingle Action Time, whose shows incorporated "Love in the beginning Sight," offered to Vital, and "Billion Dollar Chance a person can have,Inch acquired by Fox. She also released Ludus Entertainment, which produced and created factual entertainment formats "Dial a Mother," and players "Watching the Detectives" and "Cleaning soap Challenge." In 2008, she and business partner Stephen Leahy were granted the FRAPA Intl. Gold Format Award at Mipcom. Clark will lead FremantleMedia's efforts to produce and get new worldwide entertainment formats. Professional, who'll are accountable to Boss Tony Cohen, also joins the FremantleMedia operating board. Clark stated: "I see enormous potential in stretching our significant development expertise even more, to produce new entertainment formats which are as effective as our other global hits." Contact Variety Staff at news@variety.com