Benedict is of course famous for playing Sherlock Holmes (shown) and is very familiar to Steven Moffat. He was considered for the role of the Doctor taking over from David Tennant but was said to prefer the darker possibilities of Sherlock. His movie career has taken off with his part in the next Star Trek movie but then again Martin Freeman has also been busy as The Hobbit. The best we could realistically hope for would be that Benedict played the Doctor in a series of specials rather than a longer series. Would fans accept that compromise? Maybe we would for a year or two but eventually it would lead to calls for another regeneration, and there aren't many of those left!