Adams grew up in the Boston area. He attended the University of Vermont in 1980 to 1981 as well as some Harvard Extension School classes in the early 1980s. He worked for several political campaigns including two gubernatorial campaigns, a race for attorney general, and a presidential campaign. He directed television commercials for a Boston advertising agency and went into producing feature films in 1989. He is a proponent of shooting film rather than digital.
Legal problems
In December 2011 Adams was indicted on 10 counts of making false tax claims related to two movies he directed, The Golden Boys and The Lightkeepers, for which his production company received $4.7 million in tax credits from the state of Massachusetts. On April 19, 2012 he pleaded guilty, served 21 months in prison, and was sentenced to 10 years probation. In February 2019, the SEC claimed Adams had defrauded investors in connection with the film An L.A. Minute.
Film career
Adams gained film production experience from directing television commercials for a Boston advertising agency. He co-wrote and directed his first feature film in 1989, A Fool and His Money, which starred Sandra Bullock, Jonathan Penner, George Plimpton and Jerzy Kosinski. He then went on to write and direct his second feature, Primary Motive, which starred Judd Nelson, Justine Bateman, Richard Jordan, John Savage and Sally Kirkland, for Twentieth Century Fox. His third feature, which he also wrote and directed, was a comedy entitled, The Mouse, starring Rip Torn and John Savage, and released through Strand Releasing. His film, The Golden Boys, was released through Roadside Attractions and Lions Gate Films in 2009. Also in 2009, he directed the feature film, The Lightkeepers, from a script he wrote that is based on the story The Woman Haters: A Yarn of Eastboro Twin-Lights by Joseph C. Lincoln. The film, starring Richard Dreyfuss and Blythe Danner, was released through New Films Cinema in the spring of 2010. It was chosen as the closing night film for the Palm Springs International Film Festival, and was the opening night film for the Boulder International Film Festival, won the "Golden Angel" award and chosen closing night film at the Los Angeles Chinese-American Film Festival, was named the No. 2 Best Grown UpLove Story of the Year by AARP Magazine, and won the 2010 "best musical score for a comedy" award by the International Film Music Critics Association. Two-time Academy Award nominated actor Bruce Dern has compared Adams' directing style to Hal Ashby and Alfred Hitchcock, and commented, "He is on the threshold of becoming an extremely interesting commodity in this business because he's really old-school - he's an old-school filmmaker." And Academy Award-winning actor Richard Dreyfuss has been quoted, "Daniel is a smart man, who truly understands the old values of filmmaking... He is an excellent writer and perhaps enough people will see The Lightkeepers to appreciate that." Adams directed the film An L.A. Minute which he co-wrote with National Lampoon alum Larry "Ratso" Sloman. The film was released in theaters in the summer of 2018 through Strand Releasing but made just $5,004 at the box office.
