Godzilla 2000: Millennium (ゴジラ2000 ミレニアム, Gojira Nisen: Mireniamu) is a 1999 Japanese science fiction kaiju film directed by Takao Okawara and written by Hiroshi Kashiwabara and Wataru Mimura. It was the twenty-third film released in the Godzilla series. It is the only film to feature Orga. The film was released on December 11, 1999. Sony Pictures Entertainment's TriStar division released the film in the United States in August of 2000 as Godzilla 2000, the last in the Godzilla series to make a North American theatrical run. This film effectively begins and sets the tone for the Millennium series: It ignores continuity established by any previous films. Godzilla is a literal force of nature to Japan (after the incident in 1954). After Y2K, the Godzilla Prediction Network (GPN) functions independently to study the mutant dinosaur and predict his landfalls. Meanwhile, the scientists of Crisis Control Intelligence (CCI) find a sixty million year old UFO deep in the Japan Trench. As CCI attempts to raise the UFO to study it, it takes off into the sky on its own.