Don Groves is a Deadline contributor based in Sydney.

EXCLUSIVE: The Australian-born, U.S.-based star of Lost and Once Upon A Time has joined the cast of The 34th Battalion, the saga of an Australian Army unit that fought heroic battles with the Germans during World War I. Emilie De Ravin will play the wife of Nick Farnell’s character, one of four men from Maitland in rural New South Wales who joined the Army in 1916 after the disastrous Gallipoli campaign. The ensemble cast includes Luke Hemsworth, Charles Mesure, Les Hill, Claire van der Boom, Henry Nixon, Andrew Lees and Vince Colosimo. The executive producer is Ian Sparke, who has worked as military adviser, costume designer, researcher and webbing master on numerous film and TV productions; among his credits are the HBO miniseries The Pacific, Foxtel’s docudrama Charles Bean’s Great War and the films Iron Sky, X-Men Origins: Wolverine, Beneath Hill 60, Kokoda and The Great Raid. Sparke wrote the screenplay with his son Luke Sparke, who will make his directing debut, and shooting is due to start in early 2013. Camelot is selling international rights. De Ravin is repped by Gersh and manager Darren Goldberg.