As Vulture is reporting, executives at Fox are trying to do everything humanly possible to try to save Knight and Day from a fate worse than MacGruber. Despite high scores from test audiences, the Tom Cruise/Cameron Diaz joint is tracking horribly and seems to be set on the same low-grossing course as the similarly-themed Killers. And even though market research shows that nearly 90% of audiences recognize his name and face, Cruise's favorability rating is only 37%, which has no doubt has Fox soiling their summer seersuckers.
But honestly now, Fox, you can't possibly be surprised, can you? We, as a nation, got together a little while back and decided that Tom Cruise was creepy as hell. It wasn't one thing in particular that pushed him over the edge -- more like it was the unholy brew of his couch jumping, his Scientology flogging, his destruction of Katie Holmes from America's Sweetheart to moon-eyed automaton and the bracing realization that he has an empty, overly toothy rictus of a smile to match his vacant, soulless eyes. You think he's weird, Fox? Welcome to 2008. Nowadays, audiences only like him when he's nigh-unrecognizable under 30 pounds of latex and on-screen for about 15 to 20 minutes.
ยท Fox Struggles to Overcome the Tom Cruise Problem with 'Knight and Day' [Vulture]