When Only an A-List Location Trailer Will Do

“I hesitate to use names,” says Michael Bendetti, the man behind Bendetti Mobile screening theaters. “But the biggest director I know in the world used us and uses us.” In fact, Bendetti says, many a big-name director has used his poshly appointed trailers, which rent for about $3,500 a week, to screen dailies on the set. Not only are they spacious, at nearly 800 square feet, they’re plush, featuring wall-to-wall carpeting, oversized, upholstered tiered seats and extras such as hands-free loudspeaker communication with the projection room.

Who knew? Until Bendetti, 34, a former actor who appeared on “21 Jump Street” from 1990 to 1991, introduced the trailers in 1997, most directors schlepped to hotel rooms to screen dailies, he says. “Or they erected four walls on the set. And I thought, isn’t this horrible. These are A-class guys and they’re watching dailies in an inadequate place.”

More recently, Bendetti has taken the location trailer to another level with a line of mobile “celebrity suites.” “The theory on that,” he says, “is that it was odd to see these major movie stars walking out of a trailer RV that any guy could buy and take on a camping trip. We decided to build something beyond anything they had seen.” Among other enticements, the sleek, fully loaded luxury pads offer recessed lighting, wood cabinets, Italian tile bathrooms and satellite TV in the lounge as well as in the bedroom, and a full-service kitchen. “There’s also an office on board, with a fax and a desk, so they can have an assistant,” says Bendetti.

Transportable amenities seem to run in Bendetti’s family. “My cousins are the Zambonis,” he says. “They invented the ice machine. It innovated that industry, and I think we’re doing that same thing.”