From "Gulliver's Travels" to "Don Quixote," the movies and miniseries of producer Robert Halmi keep piling up.

Is there any end to them? Will he run out of classics to adapt?

Don't count on it. Halmi has just turned to "Arabian Nights" tales. "The book, if anyone ever wants to read it, is 14 volumes," he says.

Inside those volumes are 1,001 stories. Now he's adapted a few into "Arabian Nights," which ABC airs from 8-10 p.m. Sunday and 9-11 p.m. Monday.

"This is probably the best thing I've ever done," Halmi says.

That's saying a lot or very little, depending on which Halmi films you remember.

Some -- "Leprechauns," "Noah's Ark," "10th Kingdom" -- have been dismissed as dim-witted and silly. Others, starting with "Gulliver" and "Merlin, " have been considered classics.

Now he's back on the plus side. "Arabian Nights" has lush photography and a strong cast, led by Mili Avital and Dougray Scott; it also has epic stories.

"'Arabian Nights' was huge when I was growing up," says John Leguizamo, who portrays two competing genies. "I read about it all the time ... in cartoons there was always a little bit of `Arabian Nights' thrown in."

Some heroes of those stories, like Aladdin, became famous; some didn' t. Throughout however, there is rich storytelling.

"In Hollywood, usually movies are made for effects' sake and the story is secondary," Halmi says. "Here the story is important."

There were still a lot of special effects and spectacle. The project spent 17 weeks in Turkey -- two in the same desert where "Star Wars" was filmed, 15 in a studio, where 48 sets were built.

This wasn't typical movie work, says Rufus Sewell who plays Ali Baba. "There's a lot more camel wrangling than you're used to."

There also was more makeup. "I was under makeup for seven hours for the skinny, evil genie and for about five hours for the big, fat one, " Leguizamo says.

The miniseries alternates between famous and obscure tales. Aladdin and Ali Baba are there; Sinbad is not. The tales range from wild action to a comic farce.

At the core, however, is the one great connecting story:

Schariar, who rules a kingdom as sultan from his Baghdad palace, has been driven to the edge of madness. He plans to marry and then have his wife killed in the morning.

Scheherazade, the bold beautiful bride, has a plan: She will marry him, then prolong her life by keeping him interested in stories. She tells a lot of them -- 1,001 in the book, five in the miniseries. Meanwhile, their scenes together are filmed with lush beauty.

Some of that is the mark of director Steve Barron. He also filmed "Merlin," after grabbing attention with music videos (including Michael Jackson's "Billie Jean") and Jim Henson's "Storyteller" series.

Another key is the work of the two extraordinary stars.

At first, Scott might have seemed like just another actor criss-crossing the United Kingdom. He was born in Scotland, won an award at the Welsh College of Music and Drama and acted in London theater and in British and Welsh movies.

All of that changed, however, when he was cast in "Ever After: A Cinderella Story," opposite Drew Barrymore.

"Everyone thought when we were making it, it was a small movie," Scott says.

Director Andy Tennant didn't see it that way. "The sets were extraordinary, " Scott says. "You could tell (when) Andy was setting up the shots, he thought it was an incredibly epic film."

Audiences agreed and "Ever After" became a box-office hit. "People think I'm really charming after that," Scott says.

Now, by comparison, he plays a mad man. "I'm kind of more like the character in `Arabian Nights; than I am in `Ever After' ... I'm not very charming at all, really."

This time, he's opposite another remarkable actress.

Avital was 15 when she started theater work in Tel Aviv. She quickly became a movie star then tossed it all aside.

"I was 20 years old and I felt jaded already," Avital says. "(I wanted to be) a real 20-year-old, which is a student with people my age, and just to explore life."

So she studied acting in New York -- briefly. Then came "Stargate, " "Polish Wedding" and now "Arabian Nights."

Now the actress is playing the consummate storyteller. Somehow, her character must hold the sultan's attention.

"It's always connected to him and it's always connected to his soul and his spirit," Avital says.

These are stories that can fascinate a mad ruler or a TV audience. Halmi hasn't run out of good stories, after all.

© 2000, Lansing State Journal