That would have been around the time he stared a minor role in "A Man For All Seasons" as Cromwell's assistant (1966), at the time Troughton was tooting along. Having watched the behind the scenes interviews from that period, I very much doubt Variety Lambert and her top subordinates were interested in a particularly young Doctor, and Hurt was too busy with other movies to try to compete with Tom Baker, if it ever crossed his mind to audition at all. By the time Baker quit, ALIENS had pretty much cemented Hurt's status as a Hollywood icon, and as far as I know, made no more films in England for the remainder of the eighties.