It looks like Benedict Cumberbatch may have lined himself up yet another hotly sought after role as he has emerged as the front runner to take on the role of Alan Turing in an upcoming biopic.

According to Deadline, the Sherlock star, who is currently filming The Fifth Estate - in which he plays WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange - now looks set to take on the role of the Enigma-breaker after Leonardo Dicaprio pulled out of the role. DiCaprio had long been considered for the role of Turing, but following his recent announcement that he is to take time off from acting it looks as though Brit-actor Cumberbatch will be the man for the role. The biopic will be based on Graham Moore's account of Turing's life, The Imitation Game.

Turing was something of a forgotten hero in British history until recent years, greatly aiding Britain's war effort against the Nazis by helping break the Germans' 'unbreakable' Enigma code, used to send commands between military posts. Also considered to be the father of modern computing, Turing's life ended in tragedy after he was convicted of gross indecency seven years after the war for being part of a (then illegal) homosexual relationship. 2001's Enigma was based loosely on the Bletchley Park's codebreakers triumphs during the war, but was heavily criticised for writing out Turing in favour of a heterosexual man named Jericho.

As well as The Fifth Estate and the upcoming third series of Sherlock, Cumberbatch will next be seen in Jj Abrams' sequel to his Star Trek reboot in Star Trek: Into Darkness, which will be released on May 17.