"I was deeply moved," says Israeli-born actress Mili Avital. "I cried at the end of the story when I first read the script. "For a long time, I wasn't really sure why I was affected so profoundly. But I've since come to realize it's because my character,
Scheherazade, believes so completely in the power of love. Because of that unshakable belief, she's able to free her husband from the darkness within him.

"'Arabian Nights' is also testament to the power of storytelling. I get to tell five incredible stories in this miniseries, and they explore every emotion known to humankind. There's great humor, and sadness. There's good, there's evil. There's great adventure, and great philosophy."

On April 30 (8-10 p.m. Eastern) and May 1 (9-11 p.m. Eastern) on ABC, producer Robert Halmi Sr. and his Hallmark Entertainment continue working their way through the world's great literature with "Arabian Nights" (following closely after TNT's "Don Quixote" and just before next week's "Jason and the Argonauts" on NBC).

Steve Barron (Hallmark's "Merlin") directs from a screenplay by Peter Barnes (Hallmark's "Merlin," "Noah's Ark" and "Alice in Wonderland," along with "Enchanted April").

Also known as "The Arabian Nights' Entertainments" and "A Thousand and One Nights," the collection of Persian-Indian-Arabian tales was originally written in Arabic, and arranged in its present form about 1450, probably in Cairo. In the original tales, as in the miniseries, Scheherazade, wed to a mad sultan, forestalls her execution by telling him a different story each night, leaving each with a cliffhanger ending, to be revealed the following evening.

"I'd say to the audience," says Scottish actor Dougray Scott ("Ever After"), who plays the sultan, Schariar, "be prepared for a magical and extraordinary journey with lots of wonderful characters that you've known about since your childhood. Now that you're adults, you can look at them anew. You'll be excited - and, I hope, intrigued and moved - by these extraordinary characters in these extraordinary stories.

"You'll be taken on a wonderful magic carpet ride!"

While some people may not be familiar with the framing story of "Arabian Nights" - the sultan being driven into paranoia by the treachery of his brother (played here by James Frain) and first wife, and threatening to murder his new wife on the day after their wedding - many of the "Arabian Nights" tales are familiar and popular in their own right.

Of the five stories chosen for the miniseries, "Aladdin" and "Ali Baba" have been the subject of many films themselves. This time around, "Aladdin," often set in Persia, returns to its original setting of China, with Jason Scott Lee in the title role, and John Leguizamo as both the terrifying, tattooed Lamp Genie and the rotund, cowardly Ring Genie.

British actor Rufus Sewell plays the good-hearted thief "Ali Baba," leader of the Forty Thieves, with Turkish-born French film star Tcheky Karyo playing the evil thief Black Coda.

The huge cast also includes Alan Bates as the Storyteller, to whom Scheherazade turns for advice; Jim Carter as the Vizier Ja'Far; and Hugh Quarshie ("Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace") as Aladdin's nemesis, the African magician Mustappa.

Rather than just use a studio backlot, Halmi went to Turkey and Africa to shoot his tale. Much of the filming was done in the Cappadocia region of Turkey, 400 miles southeast of Istanbul, a harsh landscape of volcanic rock (where cast and crew were billeted in caves for $19 a night, including breakfast).

After filming in Cappadocia, the 235-person company moved to the newly built Antalya Studios, near Antalya, Turkey, where the production was the facility's first tenant, utilizing 48 sets over a 15-week shoot.

Additional scenes were shot on the edge of the Sahara Desert in southeastern Morocco, where 150 camels were drafted for use.

"I think it's better than 'Merlin'," says Halmi of "Arabian Nights." "It's wonderful storytelling. It's almost storytelling at its best. Of course, the original material lends itself to that."

For Leguizamo, who grew up on the streets of New York, the landscape of "Arabian Nights" was already familiar. "The 'Arabian Nights' was huge when I was growing up. I read about it all the time. It was in the cartoons, there was always a little bit of 'Arabian Nights' thrown in there. And you had all these movies from Hollywood at that time that came out, with the flying horses and all the evil genies. That always grabbed my imagination.

"It was something that I always really wanted to be a part of. When this opportunity came, it was like 'Wow!' And I could be the genie. I could be two genies. I could fight against myself and hate myself. It was a beautiful thing."

Along with sumptuous costumes and the lion's share of the dialogue, Avital also got to play that rarest of fairy-tale creatures - a woman who survives on her wits and her heart, not just her beauty. "Absolutely," says the actress. "Besides the fact that it's almost a mythological character to play, which was such a great thrill for me, is the fact that she's so wise.

"When the sultan finally faces his last battle, and she gives him those last words of wisdom, it's really beautiful."

"These tales aren't told just for the sake of telling tales," says director Barron. "They're told in the service of saving a kingdom, saving a life, saving a love. These tales have to be told, and they have to be told right.

"We decided early on to make this about something. Underneath it all, 'Arabian Nights' is about the telling of stories. It's about storytelling. That's what weaves the whole tapestry together.

"'Arabian Nights' is similar in a way to 'Merlin': the stories were handed down - at first verbally, then in print - from generation to generation, and they changed as they were handed down. We're just another link in the chain of storytellers. We're telling our version of these Persian, Indian and Arabian folktales.

"Every storyteller, when he comes to tell a story, wants to entertain, but he also wants to add a little sprinkle of magic in there as well.

"Hopefully, we've contributed some magic with this version."

Thanks to Grace and her Rufus Sewell website for the headsup!