STAMPEDE !

Oh, the perils of being a teen heartthrob.

After a recent New York premiere of “Wild America,” a film targeted primarily to preteens and young teens, Devon Sawa got a taste of what it’s like to be an idol.

He stood waiting on the curb for his limo, girlfriend Alessia Lancia in tow, figuring his co-star Jonathan Taylor Thomas would distract the squealing masses and that he would be safe. He figured wrong. About 200 kids--mostly girls between the ages of 8 and 16--bounded forth, pulling at his clothes, touching and grabbing his hair, his arms, his shoulders and begging for an autograph when a taxi finally came to the rescue. Hey Elvis, Paul, John, Ringo and George: Devon feels your pain.

You laugh. But this shy 17-year-old native of Vancouver has been the cover boy of just about every teen magazine, from Big Bopper and Tiger Beat to SuperTeen and 16, when what he really wants to do is express his acting craft.

“Wild America” had the misfortune of opening over the Fourth of July weekend opposite the phenomenally successful “Men in Black,” which captured much of “Wild America’s” audience. “Wild America” took in only $2.8 million that weekend, but those involved with the picture still expect that kids will discover it and tell their friends. “Sure ‘Men in Black’ is going to be huge,” says Gary Barber, Morgan Creek’s vice chairman and executive producer on “Wild America.” “But word-of-mouth will drive this movie. It’s a true story driven by great characters with heart, and it will appeal to a varied audience.”

“This is a project picture for us,” says Barry Reardon, Warner Bros.’ distribution chief. “We’ve got 12,000 T-shirts, 8,000 hats, 10,000 CD soundtracks, 5,000 [disposable] cameras, 100,000 buttons and 500,000 tattoos. It’s the girls that will be grabbing for these. These young guys are hot as a pistol.”

Aside from seizing the opportunity of casting the studs-of- the-moment for the preteen set to play the lead roles, the picture is filled with wild animals and their cuddly babies to indulge the American public’s craze for critters.

Set in a rural Arkansas town in the ‘60s, it is based on the true story of the three Stouffer brothers, Marty (Scott Bairstow), Mark (Sawa) and Marshall (Thomas). (The real Mark Stouffer, who appears in a cameo shot with his real brothers, is a producer on the film, directed by William Dear.)

Told through the eyes of Marshall, who must endure his older brothers’ pranks throughout, the film depicts the trio’s journey to capture on film what’s left of American wildlife.

“I’m banking on my gut instincts on this one,” says Robinson, who describes the film as a ‘90s “Stand by Me” with a dash of “Indiana Jones” adventure thrown in. “I can’t talk about [the recent family-oriented disappointment] ‘Buddy’ or the other movies. I just know how that crowd in New York reacted to these boys. The girls were trying to rip Devon’s clothes off. There were 200 kids out there, screaming and squealing. It was like Beatlemania in ’62 or Elvis. I’m betting on those fans. Those are the ones that are forgotten this summer. We just decided to give them something they wanted to see.”

Those audiences want to see more of Sawa playing roles like Mark, says Hedy End, editorial director of SuperTeen and superstars teen magazines. In fact, competitor 16 magazine describes his role as the “the hotheaded, girl-crazy and majorly sexy” one. How sexy? Says 16: “Call the bod squad: He’s shirtless in many, many scenes--as opposed to [Thomas] who’s shirt-challenged never in this movie.”

Notes End: “Devon first became popular as the real life ‘Casper’ at the end of that movie. Jonathan zoomed to top of the list over the last couple of years, because of ‘Home Improvement.’ When we heard these two were doing a movie together, we were thrilled. These kids [the magazine’s readership] have grown up with Jonathan, who is seen as blond, blue-eyed and adorable. But Devon is blond, blue-eyed, a little bit older and a little more dangerous but in a nonthreatening way.”

So what does Sawa think about his fame, especially with the younger set?

“It’s great, ego-boosting and overwhelming. It all came so quickly but it’s impossible for me to go to a mall in the Valley,” says Sawa, who divides his time between Los Angeles and his Canadian hometown. “You think it’s safe and then some girl will see you and I’ll hear her say to a friend, ‘Hey, isn’t that him.’ And I’ll try to quietly leave.”

Once they realize it is Sawa, they flock around and “it starts,” he continues. “My girlfriend doesn’t really know what to think about it. When that happened at the premiere in New York . . . well, she wasn’t crazy about it. I’m still trying to get over that experience.”

Sawa, like his co-stars, wants to be taken seriously as a young actor. He started in the business at age 12, primarily in local theater in Vancouver. His first break in the movies was a role in “Little Gi- ants” that led to his part in “Casper.”

While being a heartthrob has its positives, he hopes his fans will follow him as he grows into more dramatic roles. “My fans made me.But sometimes there’s some weird stories about me, my favorite color, the kind of girls I like, all of that stuff that’s just not true and I never said it. All I ask is that my fans don’t believe everything they read,” Sawa cautions.

The young star says his next film is a small role in “A Cool, Dry Place” opposite “Swingers” star Vince Vaughn. He plays the troubled younger brother of Vaughn’s girlfriend. “I took the part just to be in a film with Vince. I loved ‘Swingers’ and the script. But it’s very different from ‘Wild America,’ ” he says.

“I loved ‘Wild America’ because I got to do a lot of action stuff and ‘Stand by Me’ is one of my favorite films. It reminded me of that. I’m a little like my character Mark in that, yeah, OK, I like girls a lot and I was always the class clown. But I liked the way this character grew and changed in the film.”

And what about the third star of “Wild America”?

Character transformation is what drew Bairstow to the role of Marty. Now starring opposite Kevin Costner in the upcoming “The Postman,” Bairstow, 27, is a bit reluctant to be pegged as a heartthrob to the younger crowd. Married with a 2-year-old son named Casey, he starred in TV’s “Lonesome Dove” and turned up on an “X-Files” episode. Bairstow believes he hasn’t “broken through” yet but expects the latest film could help.

“You know, I’m like Jonathan and Devon. I’m thankful for fans whatever their ages,” he says. “But Devon and Jonathan . . . they’re the heartthrobs. They’re the ones the girls will come to see.”