More a Big Chill for the '90s than a contemporary Secaucus Seven, Andres Heinz' Origin of the Species strands six old friends in a rambling upstate New York country house for a ritual July reunion. Though it's the ninth year this group of college pals has gathered, this summer finds them battling painful transitions and pushing thirty.

Paul, their host and erstwhile leader, has mapped out a list of discussion topics reflecting his recent study of evolution -- hence the title -- but sexual selection turns out to be a more subjective quandary for several members of the group. Julia, Paul's wife, is already pregnant with their first child when the weekend starts, but her decade-old flirtation with playboy Fisher is still heading for a point of no return. Stan's recently survived a cancer episode that makes sex questionable and has scared off girlfriend Kate, but a sudden blossoming of his friendship with the unassuming Laura makes Kate reconsider.

Screenwriter Robert Weston Ackerman, 38, adapted Origin from his play of the same name. He says Origin's take on protracted adolescence was inspired by a nagging sense of not getting on with his own life after a close friend's early death.

Heinz, 26, is a 1995 grad of NYU's Tisch School of the Arts where his thesis film, Ground Level B, earned top honors. He and Ackerman both met Origin producer David Nickoll working for the film unit at "Saturday Night Live," where Nickoll's been a production manager for the past three seasons. Last winter Nickoll was back at SNL after a stint on Boogie Nights as assistant to producer John Lyons, a gig he got as the hands-on phase of the Sundance Institute's Mark Silverman Fellowship, an annual award that recognizes a promising new producer. He'd seen Origin on stage in December '96 and optioned it in March, giving Ackerman just three months to complete the screenplay for a July shoot and tapping Heinz to direct after he weighed in with first-draft notes.

Origin shot 20 days between July 20 and August 13 in Armonk, New York at Ackerman's mother-in-law's house -- the space he wrote the play about -- and a nearby private lake. At press time the filmmakers were racing towards a January delivery and all rights were available.

Cast: Elon Gold, Jean Louisa Kelly, Michael Kelly, Jonathan LaPaglia, Amanda Peet, Sybil Temchen. Crew: Producer, David Nickoll; Executive Producer, D.J. Paul; Associate Producers, Joan and Richard Firestone; Screenwriter, Robert Weston Ackerman; Director, Andr»s Heinz; Cinematograph-er, Stephen Kazmierski; Production Design, Dean Taucher; Production Managers, Amanda Back, Jamie May; Casting, Beth Melsky; Editor, Adam Lichtenstein. Contact: David Nickoll, Nickoll Arcade Films, 322 West 57th Street, #27G, New York, NY 10019. Tel: (212) 459-9349, Fax: 246-8121.

Afraid of Everything - David Barker
Chutney Popcorn - Nisha Ganatra
Dark Harbor - Adam Coleman Howard
Fear of Fiction - Charlie Ahearn
The History of Luminous Motion - Bette Gordon
Judy Berlin - Eric Mendelsohn
The Last Big Attraction - T. Hopwood DePree
Me and Will - Sherrie Rose and Melissa Behr
Mute Love - Patrice Mallard
Origin of the Species - Andres Heinz
The Two Ninas - Neil Turitz